Chaos and Bang Your Ears 6!

Sorry this is out so late.  We did this one on Monday and I've been swamped at work and home.

Jamie and I actually talk quite a bit about training in this one.  Very solid, and only 1 hour.

The Plan.....Part 2

So we went over the plan yesterday for diet and training the next few months to lean up.  However just like a great BJ, nothing lasts forever, and the diet laid out won't work forever, nor is it something to stay on forever.

So with more detail here is what the plan is for the next few months.

So here's the deal.......

Days 1-13

Do the diet AS WRITTEN.

Yes it's low in calories, yes it will suck, yes you will be tired and all of that shit.  It's not cancer bitch.  Shut up and deal with it.

More than likely you'll end up losing 8-12 pounds over those 13 days.  Some fat, some water, some glycogen. It's a nice kick start to get the fat loss going for summer.

Day 14 -

Do the diet as written until around 4 P.M.  Load carbs from 4-8 P.M.  Whatever you want, as much as you want.

Day 15- Introduce some carb backloading twice a week.
I really like carb backloading a lot.  And I think from a mass gaining and strength standpoint, without getting fatter, it's excellent.  Right now however, I am not as lean as I want to be.  This is the reason for the 14 day shake diet AS WRITTEN.

However starting on the first big training day I will reintroduce carb backloading into my diet, but different than before.  No dirty carbs.  All clean.  And of course, only at the night meal, with a cut off of 8 P.M.

Also starting at day 15, add an extra shake in.  Doesn't have to be a MRP, can be a shake with peanut butter.  So the diet might look more like so.......

Big Training Day -
Meal 1 - shake w PB
Lunch - MRP
Snack - MRP
BCAA
Train
Meal with carbs - brown rice, potatoes, etc

Small Training Day -
Meal 1 - shake w PB
Lunch - MRP
Snack - MRP
BCAA
Train
Dinner - meat and veggies only
Cottage Cheese

I've heard a lot of guys complaining about energy but I don't understand that.  Maybe I'm more of a genetic outlier in that regard than I want to admit, but 2800 calories a day for me maintains 245 pounds or so.  That's training almost every day with conditioning on top of it.  I'm 250+ right now simply from eating extra carbs a mere 3 days a week at night.  So your mileage may vary.

Generally energy reserves do take a hit in a calorie deficit, but once you lose bodyfat and your weight stabilizes you tend to rebound just fine.  This can take a few weeks depending on what kind of deficit you have.  Either way, right now after doing IF and carb backloading I often don't even eat for the first time until 11-11:30 or so and then usually just have a shake around 2-2:30 and then train on that.  And I feel fine.  If you've been used to eating a ton of food before training this would obviously take some getting used to, and until you undergo that metabolic change, you might feel like shit.  As I noted, it's not cancer and you will live. You'll just feel like shit, which is completely curable.

The Plan......

Well here I sit, not feeling good about not being jacked and tanned enough with pool season in full swing and summer back on top of me.

In the past couple of months I've done both Intermittent Fasting and now Carb Backloading, and I'm no closer to being leaner for summer than I was a few months ago.  My conditioning work is high enough, and I'm basically in the gym everyday.

That only leaves 1 culprit.

I've said all along I don't need a lot of calories to gain weight.  People often can't believe how little I can eat to maintain my weight.  So generally in order to lose fat, I need to get into the 2300-2500 calorie range on a day to day basis consistently for some time, before that extra layer of fat starts falling off.  Right now with the carb back loading, that isn't happening.  I don't need to take 6 months to drop 10 pounds.  10 pounds.  10 pounds would essentially put my back under 10% bodyfat for summer, which is what I want.  Not just because of "looks" but because, as I've written for some time, I need to be a BIGGER 242 to hit some of the goals I am after.  A bigger 242 means me being leaner at 245 or so, than I am now.

Now it's not like I'm some fat ass at the moment.  Hardly.  Buuuuut I can feel my bodyweight climbing and I can feel myself slowly pushing more towards that 15% limit range I talk about so very much.

So it's time to do what I know works.  Namely, my shake diet for a couple of months, with a carb load day here and there, and keep everything else the same.

Now here is the good part.  I really like carb backloading, and I'm 100% certain it will be the method I use to gain quality mass once the summer is over.  However my goals right now, for the year, don't allow enough time for me to continue to do carb backloading.  It's not giving me what I want at the moment.  Namely, to shed bodyfat as fast as possible.  I need to be very lean by the end of summer, so I can slowly eat back up to 245 or so, and be even leaner at that weight.

Honestly, I'm so close I don't think it will take much effort.  I'm between 251 and 253 most days and if I took off 15 pounds of pure fat right now, I'd be pretty fucking lean at 238 or so.  My guess is, my weight will drop well below that once I get back on my shake diet because of water and glycogen loss.  So I am going to try and shoot for a very lean 230.

So to give kind of a high level overview from a diet and training perspective, here is how I plan to roll things out for the rest of the year.

Summer - Shake diet, emphasis on conditioning - 2 big sessions a week, 4-5 small sessions, work to get bodyweight to 228-230.  Try not to be overly concerned about strength during this time.
Fall - Carb backloading, emphasis on mass building and hitting rep PR's, 2-3 big sessions a week, 3 small sessions, conditioning maintenance.  Slowly push weight up, heavy weight and high reps.  
Winter - Carb backloading, Strength Peaking for meet (strong-15) with minimized assistance work, if any.  Goal of 1800 beltless total.  650/450/700.

Basically, my shake diet starting next week will look like so......

Meal 1 - MRP
Meal 2 - MRP
"Meal" 3 - BCAA
Train
Meal 4 - Grilled chicken, turkey, fish, or lean red meat with veggies
Meal 5 - MRP or Cottage Cheese

I am not going to worry about my strength during this time.  What I mean by that is, if it drops, it drops.  I'm not going to fret it.  I say this just as much to convince myself as I do you.  Because I know I will hate it, and be more pissed off than a feral female cat in heat, trying to keep from getting fucked, as my strength wanes.

However the big picture here is a bigger leaner me.  And summer time really isn't the time to be carrying around extra adipose.  Heat isn't conducive to big eating, and let's face it, most people want to be outside doing shit and having fun for summer.  I've put over 2 decades into this shit.  I love living life.  And I'd personally rather be out doing sprints, at the pool, taking a bitching vacation and shit like that, than shoveling my face for a fucking winter time meet.  No way, no how.

So look for me to drop some extra EL BEE's over the next 5-6 weeks.  Training won't change.

Monday - small session #1

Tuesdays - Big Session #1 Upperbody
Push
Pull

Tuesday - small session #2

Wednesday - small session #3

Thursday - small session #4

Friday - off

Saturday - small session #5

Sunday - Big Session #2 Lowerbody


Just the diet.  My plan is to not cheat at all for 6 weeks and be where I need to be.

Anyone who wants to hop on board for the next 6 weeks with me, get on board.  The whole plan is right there.

Big Session #1 - Upperbody

Bodyweight - 250

Db Bench -
flyes - 20's x 20,20 (warm up)
60's x 15,15
110's x 8
140's x 12.5, 8

Chins -
bodyx5
+25x1
+50x1
+75x1
+100x1
body x 15

Notes - A true 80%.  Nothing to see here, oh except that my chinning feels pretty fucking pathetic right now.  Suck my balls, chin ups.  Pissed that I didn't get 13 on the first set of db bench.  Maybe next time.  250?  Really?  Jesus, I'm barely eating.

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff

Strength Life Legacy - So the book is finished for the most part.  I'm still just fine tuning things, adding pictures, and shit like that.  I am basically having to make myself stop because it's already 150 or so pages and I'm sure I would eclipse 200 pretty easily if I allowed myself.

Basically, I wanted to cover not only my philosophies again, but go over even more technical aspects of the big 3.  Along with that, the new strong-15 and big-15 cycles, the strong-15 short cycle, pause squat, block deadlift, and strongman deadlift cycles.  Thoughts on being a man, and having a code.  A ton of routines and templates, and very little on dieting.

I hate writing about dieting for the most part because it bores me.  Eating to me, is pretty simple.  We already know what the good foods are, we already know if you want to gain eat more, if you want to lose, eat less.  Yet people obsess over everything from pre-workout shakes to what to eat before bed.  I wasn't going to get into that.  There are tons of diet gurus out there to be hassled for that.

UFC 146 - Good card.  I guess with Overeem out for 9 months, we're gonna see another Cain/JDS showdown more than likely.  Mir looked fat as hell to me.  What the fuck?  You'd think knowing he was going to be fighting a guy that's around 238 with quick hands, that he would have slimmed down in order to be quicker.  I also told Zack (my MMA blurb guy) that that particular matchup looked TERRIBLE on paper.  Mir, who has a penchant for getting rocked, against the best hands guy in the HW division who also has the best take down defense in the business.  Ummmmmm, no.  Terrible.  And he still picked Mir.  Jesus......

Oh anyway, back to Overeem.  I think Reem is the only guy that has a shot to challenge JDS.  Cain's standup just isn't as good, and again, with that takedown defense that JDS has that's the only place the fight is going to end up.  Reem is the only guy I can think of that is going to be able to stand and bang with him.  And what a great fight that would be.

Props to Big Country who I have dogged on plenty.  He looked like he lost some weight, and that overhand right was just beautiful.

And to go back a few weeks, so much for Jon Jones flawless image, huh?  That guy can eat a bag of Ron Jeremy dicks.

Even more on small workouts - Ok this topic got a lot of traction and Jamie and I talked about it in the podcast yesterday.  Jamie pretty much reiterated what I said......small workouts are sweat breakers, in and out in 30 MAX.  You are not putting heavy weight in your hands.  You are not picking movements that do best with heavy weight on the bar.  It's just amazing to me that guys can get confused on this concept.  A small workout is something you can do with the flu, feeling like shit (like I did yesterday) and it's not a big deal.  Machines, dumbbells, and lightly loaded barbells.  I will be writing some examples of small routines this week to drive this point even more home, but I really can't believe it generated this much confusion.

The Grey - If you have not seen this movie, do so.  I loved it.  It's depressing as shit, yes.  But there was so much depth to the story and had so many powerful scenes.

Sexual number - So I asked this question on FB last night because I love to generate discussion, and finding hot buttons is generally not that hard.  I honestly laugh my ass off when women chime into these discussions and offer up such gems as "your number doesn't matter".  Hey......ho...it does.  To most guys who are looking to DATE a girl, they want to know they aren't dating some chic that spread her legs for any ol' boy at any opportunity.  I would never date a chic that slept with 20 fucking guys.  Jesus christ no.  Now that's my own moral compass, and if yours is different that's fine.  To each his own.  But MOST guys, do not want to date a chic they know spread easier than warmed up Skippy on toast.

And if a woman tells you she doesn't know her "number", that means she knows she's a ho.  Everyone knows their number, or ballpark.  And if a chic has to use the term "ballpark" when referring to the number of meat sticks that been in her, well, no thanks.  Do not want.

Memorial Day - I hope everyone took at least a minute out of their day yesterday to say thanks to a vet.

Do something interesting this week fuckers.  What do you think my motto is about?  No day is promised to you.  Do something awesome with it.

Filed under a list of things you will never do.....

Eric Spoto.........

Small Session #1

Bodyweight - 252

Tit Machine Rear Delts - 6 sets of 20
Rope Pushdowns - half stack x 5 set of 20
Curls - 5 sets of 15

Notes - Groggy as shit.  Like a zombie.  Will do steady state later tonight.

Cruising.......

Ever been on an awesome road trip, where you stop and enjoy the sites.  You stop off at that hole in the wall place to eat and enjoy the best chicken fried steak you ever had.  Next thing you know, you're at your destination.  You never rushed, you never exceeded the speed limit for the most part.  You just cruised man.

On the other hand, you ever notice when you're in a hurry to get someplace, that you always get behind the slowest fucking driver ever?  Even more frustrating than that, have you ever gotten around that slow asshole, driven like a maniac, blazing a fucking trail up the road.  Then get hit by that red light.   You sit there, white knuckles on the steering wheel.......then that slow mother fucker pulls up right along side you at the red light.  All that maniacal driving didn't get you there any faster.

Amazing isn't it?

Lately I've had more and more stories from guys telling me about them actually listening, and just cruising a stubborn big lift for a while, only to test it later and hit a huge PR.

Wendler noticed this same thing quite a few years ago.  He was just going into the gym, doing enough to get work in, and he kept getting stronger.  He wasn't killing himself, just having lots of 80%ers.  Get in, do some work, get out.  Progress made.

A while back a guy wrote to me that he felt my programming wasn't heavy enough for him.  That he never felt like he was "worked" when he left the gym.  So after many weeks, he said "fuck it" and he went into the gym and warmed up on squats, and hit a 20 pound PR.

Let that story sink in for a while before you continue.

Recently Nealstar ran one of my Beastdom programs.  I told him to just pull maintenance for deadlifts on it, and attack the rows and squats.  He hated this idea, but he listened.

What happened?  Well, he pulled two new PR's on testing day, just missing a third.

This isn't an exception to the rule.  If you have been stuck in the slow lane for a while and a big lift hasn't moved, and you've been destroying yourself on it.....slow down.  Eat some chicken fried steak, and relax a bit.

The enemy of cruising.....muscle mass

Let me be clear, in the above I am talking about making a lift move.  Strength, if you will.

Muscle mass hates a slow driving mother fucker.

If your goal is to get bigger and build a shit ton of mass, then grinding your nuts into crack dust is pretty much a fucking requirement.  Moving as much weight as you can in the medium to high rep range pretty much can't be avoided.  I don't care what anyone tells you, at some point you're going to have to train balls the fuck out in order to build mass.

In the meantime, figure out which one is most important to you, and apply said methods and/or philosophies.

Training - Big Session #2

Bodyweight - 248

High Bar Pause Squats - 60 seconds in between sets
315 x 12 sets of 3
405x1x1

Hip/quad/adductor all felt ok.  No problems.

Speed Skater Squats - 5 sets of 15
1 legged calf raises - stairs (about 80 reps per leg)

Notes - felt pretty good.  The quad/hip is having less and less pain.  Felt pretty good today.  Leaving it alone for a while has been the best thing I've done.

And since some assclown the other day implied I had a lack of leg development...........

Small Sessions 3 and 4

Last night -

upright rows - 65x100 reps total

Today -

Flat flyes - 25's x 5 sets of 20
face pulls - 5 sets of 20

superset - db curls/rope pushdowns - 5 rounds of 10 reps

Cardio - 15 minutes

Notes - Bodyweight was 252 this morning.  Errrr?  Ok.

Lift.....run.....bang....your weekend. Which will you do?

Tonight - small workout and dinner out

Tomorrow - a.m. conditioning and small workout + carbs that evening (dinner out, again)

Sunday - a.m. conditioning and big session that afternoon + gross and dirty shit XXX porno carbs that evening............I am thinking McDonalds for some reason but Wendy's sounds good too.

What will you lift, run, and bang this weekend?

MMA Blurb

Well well well, UFC 146 is finally upon us. Comparing the original lineup and what we will have Saturday, and I can kind of understand the risk Zuffa takes in its promotions. This is a heavy-weight dominant card, and five years ago, the division wasn't deep enough to support this many card edits. Lord knows Strikeforce's heavy-weight division couldn't.

From Mark Hunt, to Gonzaga, to Overeem, the uncontrollable variables here are insane. There's no insurance other than editing the card, and hoping the paper-view sells. So forgive my obvious disappointment, but a few months ago this was a Bentley I was looking at. Now we got up close, it's more like a Jonesed Bentley.

So barring anymore edits to the UFC 146 change log, here are the calls in bold.

Cain Velasquez vs Frank Mir Antonio Silva

Cain has the tools to win this 100%. Antonio got beat by Cormier, and I think Cain can beat either one them up.

Roy Nelson vs Antonio Silva Dave Herman

Roy has to win this. It's quite possibly his last heavy-weight match, and while Dave has some knockout power, I think Roy more experienced. Team fat guy. Hermans a dangerous guy, with lots of first round finishes, but Roy has gone the distance with better fighters.

Stefan Struve vs Mark Hunt Lavar Johnson

Lavar may win this, but statistically speaking, Struve's height advantage wins most of the time. A part of me thinks tall fuckers like Struve should be in their own division.

Gabriel Gonzaga Stipe Miocic vs Shane Del Rosario

Not going to make a call on two up and coming undefeated guys. This is a good candidate for fight or submission of the night.

Edson Barboza vs Jamie Varner

Because Barboza's highlight video is better, more recent, and not as grainy.

Jason Miller vs C.B. Dollaway

I originally was going to pick Miller. I want to. I think he brings levity to the sport. A part of me wants to pick him because I feel like if doesn't win this fight, the UFC will cut him. That would suck.

Dan Hardy vs Duane Ludwig

Dan Hardy is younger and a better boxer, and that is where this match will be.  He's coming off of four consecutive losses, and is hungry for a win.

Mike Brown vs Daniel Pineda

Brown is a beast and while I respect Pineda's record, I'm not prepared to bet in his favor yet. I did not realize Brown lost to Rani Yahya.

Junior Dos Santos vs Allistar Overeem Frank Mir 


MATUA modeled this fight 10,000 times, and came out with JDS winning 66% of the time, but I'm going to root for the guy with the wallet chain. Given Mir's losses have all been via strikes, this is probably a bad choice. I think everyone agrees Mir is no Overeem.

Randoms

Anderson Silva reviews The Voice of Reason on Amazon......Found some Silva instructionals.....and he's not leaving the division.

Eric Kelly is doing some training too. He's training "..a bunch of fucking nerds."

Instead of Urijah losing to Cruz, he will now lose to Renan Barao.

Don't flinch. 

Episode 11 of The Reem who we can now thank for new testing.

Nick Diaz will be back February 2013, if he shows up. I appreciate NSAC allowing Sonnens TRT, while shitting on the lazy pot head everyones afraid of.

Ariel Helwani calls out Bob Sapp on throwing fights......Profile of a tapper.

So we all know by now that Jones got a DUI. Did you know this wasnt his first run in?
Combat Jiu-Jitsu.

Forrest Griffin's Pistols and Predictions

Rampage squashes beef with Joe Rogan.

Pat Barry tries to kill his mother.

Randy Couture says that Brock deservers to be in the hall of fame, and Roy says if thats true, so should he. For his kung-fu.

Small Session and PJR Pullover demonstration

bodyweight - 247

Side Laterals - 5 sets of 20 with 20's
Incline Curls - 2x20 with 20's, 2x10 with 40's
Pullovers - 40x20, 70x30

Wanted to give a demo of my "namesake" exercise, the PJR pullover since I've never done so and it has become a staple in a lot of guys training that use the DC method.

More on Big and Small workouts......

With the new book coming out in a few weeks, I wanted to continue the ball rolling on big and small sessions and why my training has really evolved into this way of thinking.

Psyching up  -

In my experience, the more times a week you have to "get up" for a set, the more time you need to spend recovering.  Generally we get up for our hardest or heaviest sets, whether this be a single or set of 20.

One thing I have grasped about this, is that when you have to do that over and over again it begins to wear on your mind and body.  The fact is, you're just not going to be able to do this week in and week out, without hitting a mental wall.

Training with a new routine is a lot like dating a new girl.  The first few weeks are awesome, and you love the newness.  Shit is phresh, and everything is perfect.

Then after a few weeks, things bog down, and you're shown a side of things that you didn't know about a few weeks before.  Things get harder and you aren't as excited about shit as you once were.

So the cycle goes.

When you are caught in that "haven't made gains in forever" zone, forcing your body to make changes requires a fucking sledge hammer effort.  I spent years training like this in order to create my base, my foundation.  So there is a time and a place for it.  However you will get spent eventually, and need a break.  If you are training in a way where you have to get psyched up for set after set, eventually that shit will take a toll on you and you will hit a wall.  This isn't even up for debate.  It will happen.

I managed to train DC style for two years, and made great gains, but I eventually couldn't do that any longer.  I started to dread training that way.  I was forced to get up for set after set after set, movement after movement.

Eventually I said fuck that.  I generally find that guys can only do that kind of training for so long until they can't stomach it anymore.  Either the mental stress gets to be too much, or the body breaks down.  It doesn't take long to think about guys that train that way, that also tend to have a shit ton of injuries year in and year out.


Now let me say, that if you are an intermediate guy, or early advanced guy, and you still have a decent amount of room in terms of reaching your genetic potential then training balls the-fuck out, will probably pay a lot of dividends.  Especially if you're shoveling the food down at a solid clip.  But I know for me, as I got closer to my genetic ceiling, training balls out every single session for every moment made recovering far more difficult.  Not to mention, I'm older now with a lot of fucking training miles and injuries on me.  It's not an excuse to not train hard, just to train smarter based on my current environment.  I still have plenty of sessions where I go balls fucking out.  I'm just smarter about how many times that happens, and am in tune more with my recovery needs after these kinds of sessions.



Reducing big movements - 

For the most part, I have settled on doing a maximum of three big movements per session.  This made sense to me.  Three movements weren't so much that, even if I had to get "ready" for a set, it was only going to happen maybe 3 times in that whole workout.  And might not happen at all.  Since I was leaving a few reps in the tank as well, I didn't find my eagerness for training start to wane.  And I almost never needed time off.  If I did, it was a few days.  I also didn't count shit like calf raises and ab work as part of the movements either.  Just the big stuff.

This helped me immensely in terms of mentally always feeling good about training.

But eventually I found that there was something missing.......

Small workouts -

Over the last few years I have done more and more "small sessions" or "small workouts" that was made up of things like curls, triceps, rear delts, calves, abs, etc.  Stuff that I honestly hated making times for on the big days, because, after squatting or pulling heavy as fuck for an hour, I generally just wanted to go home and eat some food.  But I knew these other small movements were important for things like filling in muscular gaps, and injury prevention.

So over time I started doing more and more shit like my curls and cuff work and such, on "off" days.

Over this time I have grown muscularly larger, been injured less, and hit tons of PR's in the big lifts.  I can't honestly say it's directly attributed to moving all that piddly shit to other days, but I do know that my training has been going really well for an incredibly long period now.  Outside of the quad issues I have had, my deadlift and all my various pressing movements have never been stronger.

More benefits to small workouts - 

Other great benefits to doing small sessions is......

• More calories burned.  You get leaner over time.
• Appetite stimulation.  You WILL get hungrier from doing these little sessions on "off" days.
• You can target "weak" bodyparts that need to be brought up.  This is what I call "fill in muscular gaps".  
• It increases your workload capacity.  I hate the term GPP with a fucking passion.  So I won't call it that. I'll just call it workload capacity.  

Small sessions should not NOT tax you.  You should work fast, light, and get a solid pump (yes, a pump mother fucker), and feel better upon finishing than when you started.  Small sessions should not cut into recovery enough that a big session suffers.  I'm not saying you may not have some localized muscle soreness, but systematic recovery shouldn't be an issue.  

The other great thing with small sessions is that you can just vary them week to week, and based on how you feel.  For example, night before last I got almost no sleep.  So I just cancelled the small workout for that day.  No big deal, and I don't sweat over it.  If you are feeling good, you can throw in a small workout on almost every day, and if you are really fucking bananas you could even do a big workout in the a.m. and a small one in the p.m.  But I don't suggest this.

Small workout selection -

I basically split my small sessions into training traps, rear and side delts, biceps, triceps, calves, and abs.  

I don't really care if they are always split up proportionately.  Sometimes I do upright rows 2 or 3 times in a week, and other times I get on a face pull kick.  I generally use the same rule I use with my big sessions, and I limit it to 3 movements.  So upright rows, curls, triceps is common, as is face pulls, bent laterals, and calves.  

It also doesn't mean I won't throw in a set or two on a big day for these guys, either.  It all depends on how I feel and what I'm trying to accomplish.  

Mindset - 

Think of your big sessions as the brick and mortal of everything.  That's the most important parts of building your foundation.  Think of your small sessions as the marble tile and ceramic bathtubs.  You can have a nice framework with the big stuff, but you still need the small stuff eventually to have the complete package.

Training - Big Session #1 Upperbody

Bodyweight - 244

Lat Pulldowns - warm up 6 sets of 12

Incline Press -
barx30
135x10
185x5
225x4
275x3
315x2
365x1
315x9-5 50% set

Cable Rows - stack x 4 sets of 12
Seated Db Press - 100's x 16

Notes - Zero gas tonight.  I felt good, like energy wise, but as soon as I started pressing there just wasn't a lot of "umpf" to finish.  Pretty pathetic session overall numbers wise.  100's x 16 on seated press made me feel like the worlds biggest vagina.  Glad it was my final movement.  80%er but not by much.

Shirts......to arrive soon.......

They will be in limited quantity.  This is not a ploy to sell more, the poly cotton are more expensive so I'm going to order as many as I think will sell.  I think the price will be $22 + shipping.  Again, everyone wants the poly cotton so that's what I'm going with.

CNBYE 5

There were titties discussed at great length, a decent amount of training, and Phil from Ironradio sat in, high as shit on Percs.  When I say high, I'm talking At one point, he says he wants to fuck Attila the Hun.  This is good shit.

Training - Small session #1

Bodyweight - 240

Upright Rows -
barx40
135x5
155x4
175x3
205x2
225x1
245x1
225x5
185x7,7,7

That was it.  Was still a bit tired from Saturday night (yes, I'm a pussy) but got some work in.

Gaining "fat" free" mass..........

Paul,

i got a question concerning nutrition! I´m 19 years old and love the powerlifting training, but i also want to gain some muscle, even thought it is not as important as strength to me (but has its place!)

I want to gain muscle mass as fatfree as possible, but i´m not very sure on how to do that. I hate doing things to complicated, especially nutrition can drive me crazy here (counted every single macro and calorie for a long time, but hated it, because you´re so unflexible with food/eating).

I just lost fat in a cutting phase and am in pretty good shape now, but its time to get BIG (not fat :D).

My nutrition is always very clean, also when trying to gain muscle, i´m not eating bad stuff very often. Mostly lean protein (lean meat, eggs, protein powder, fish, cottage cheese etc.), low GI carbs (brown rice, whole grain bread and pasta, potatoes, oats) and good fats (nuts, natural peanut-butter, oil etc.). Even though i ate that clean, i don´t seem to be that type of person, which is very ripped...for example my vascularity on my arms narrows down to 1 vein on each side, the one on my right arm isn´t even visible all the time. I want it like you have it! You are in awesome shape and big, man...

So all in all: What strategy could i use to gain fatfree (AMAP) muscle beside the strength gain of course? I am catching myself worrying way to much, but that´s why i ask for your help.

Thanks buddy!






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Gaining mass as fat free as possible is really the toughest road to hoe.

Gaining mass requires a calorie surplus, and with a calorie surplus comes water weight and fat gain. There is really no getting around this, I don't care what any guru tells you.

My advice for guys wanting to gain mass has been the same for a very long time. Get down to a very decent level of bodyfat, something in the 8-10% range, and eat up from there, limiting yourself to around 15%. After that, you tend to fall off the wagon, so to speak, and fat accumulation will start to snowball on you. The body gets really good at getting fatter once you, well, get fatter.

Most guys estimate their bodyfat at something way lower than what it actually is.

"I can see some top abs first thing in the morning."

Good for you, that's the very leanest of being fat. In other words, if you see a 4 pack in the morning, you're still fucking fat for the most part. Don't kid yourself, you're still 20%.





You're still fat Mr. 4 pack

I sport mostly full abs all year. If I even begin to not, I stop and take a step back and try to determine if I have been eating too much, or not getting enough conditioning in.

Let me BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT THIS......I do not eat nor condition to "get abs" I HAVE ABS because I eat properly and condition. There is a very clear difference. I train for go, and this gives me the "show". If my "show" starts to go away, it's always without fail, that I have let either my diet or conditioning slide.

I also do not consider myself "lean". I consider myself to generally be "in shape". Sometimes more, sometimes less, but generally closer to more, than less, or I'm at least trying. But generally I stay in the 10-12% range. This is a good range to work in for both muscle mass and strength. If I want to increase my conditioning, I can drop to 8% or so if I just tighten the diet up a little bit, and do more conditioning. Which is what I am doing now.

So to start at the top, if you aren't as vascular as you want to be, it could be that either you aren't a vascular person, or that you're really just not as lean as you need to be to look vascular. Either way, don't train for looks, train for performance.......the looks will come. When I gave up training to look like a bodybuilder, and started training with being the baddest mother fucker I could be, I got leaner and stronger and bigger so much faster than when I was trying to LOOK the part.





most recent pic @ roughly 10-12%

The first thing to do however is to get leaner first, then go full force into the strength and mass phase, while always maintaining an athletic level of bodyfat while doing so.

Since you're saying strength is the most important part in the equation, my recommendation is to run the strong-15 and then use your assistance work to gain mass, and make sure you're doing conditioning 2-5 times a week, all depending. Steady state 2-3 times in the morning fasted, and then 1 or 2 days of hard conditioning.

2 big workouts a week. Squats and deads on 1 day, then bench on the other, then do 2 small workouts a week that cover your assistance stuff. Face pulls, bent laterals, upright rows, curls, triceps, calves and abs.

As so for the week.....

Day 1 - Squat and Pull
Squat - cycle
Deadlift - cycle
Leg Curls

Day 2 - small workout
face pulls
upright rows
calf raises

Day 3 - off steady state

Day 4 - Bench
Bench - cycle
Incline Press
Chins/Rows

Day 5 - small workout
curls
triceps
abs

Day 6 -
hard conditioning

Day 7 - off steady state

Keep your food clean, and eat 3 solid meals a day with 50-60 grams of protein, and 80-100 grams of carbs at breakfast and lunch. For your last meal of the day go to veggies and meat only to keep fat intake down. If you find you are getting too much chub, cut carbs out on "off" days. If you find you aren't gaining enough, up carbs for two meals on "off" days.

This shit is easy, but it does take time. Be patient and be a fuckin lifer.

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff

I hosted a small party Saturday night for friends, and whoever wanted to show up, at Angel's Rock Bar downtown Kansas City in the Power and Light district.

I got there early because I wanted to take the little lady to eat, and low and behold, there's a GOD DAMN COUNTRY MUSIC CONCERT GOING ON!!!!  WHAT THE FUCK IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY AND DECENT?!?!?!

I'm from the South.  So I know what Country looks like.  I just don't remember it being this ugly and dirty.

I personally think that anyone who really loves country music, must have something chemically wrong in their brain, or not functioning correctly.  I know music is a lot like, all that beauty in the eye shit, yeah yeah.  But country music is one music, that seemed to be universally despised outside of the people that love it.  It's whining, putrid, awful, horrible shit and I think that people who really love country music are more dangerous than terrorists.

The people there to see this event, the great majority of them, most definitely had not been in a shower that week, or put a bar of soap up against their ghastly flesh.

Now someone will end up piping in about Hank Jr. and old country and all that shit, but it's bullshit.  If you LOVE Hank Jr. more than likely you love a bunch of modern day country as well.  And I bet if you do, more than likely you either have "those" country friends, or you are that country friend.  Shitty, rotten looking goatee, dirty ass pants, work boots on, and your dads button up gas station work shirt.  It has been some time since I've seen that big of a collection of fat dirty people.  If someone had thrown tooth brushes into the crowd I'm sure the majority of them would have confused said items as alien artifacts.  That's if they knew what the word artifact meant, which they wouldn't.  So they would just be supremely confused.  

I on the other hand, had good looking friends to hang out with that smelled good felt good to touch on........

What are you doing with your Saturday night?  

The other thing I noticed as I was out, is everyone on their cell phones looking at Facebook.  They are out in a social setting, being anti-social, because they are on a social networking site.  Jesus for the love of god Christ, what the fuck is wrong with people?  How about you just wait until the next day to tell everyone how awesome your life is?  Kinda like I did with the picture and post above?  I waited.  You can wait too.

I saw three people sitting at dinner, all on Facebook on their cell phones, not even talking to each other.  I wanted to slap the shit out of one of em and tell the other two "at least your next status update will be interesting...."

My carb backloading is starting to become workable.  Basically right now, I want to lean up a bit, and maybe even more down the line.  So I'm doing the following........

Saturday - light carb backload and clean - rice or white potatoes
Sunday - heaviest carb backload and dirty - rice, ice cream, cookies, M&M's
Tuesday - medium carb backload and 50/50 - rice, ice cream

I have also started doing steady state everyday again (in the morning, and fasted) and am adding in more small sessions during the week.  That's again, the great thing about the way my training has evolved.  I know I only have 2 big sessions a big to really gear up for.  In the meantime I can do up to 4 or 5 small sessions a week and don't notice any difference in recovery.  It's good shit.  I will be writing more about big and small sessions.

I think I will be switching my other big workout around from Sunday to Saturday as I have found, if I do go out to party, it's on Saturday night.  And then Sunday I'm all fucked up and can't lift great.

Did the podcast last night with Jamie and Phil, and well, it's fucking hilarious.  About 2 hours, and we do actually cover some training, but that is most definitely not the highlight of the show.  Shit got ridiculous.

Just to reiterate to you guys, if you want poly-cotton they will be in limited supply when the shipment arrives, and they cost extra.  They won't be fucking $40 that spreadshirt wants, but it's not going to be $18 either.  Just giving you a heads up, if you want one that bad.  I will be keeping a few for myself because they are the shitz.

Not a ton for today, it's Monday and life sucks after such an awesome weekend.  However I plan on throwing parties the next two weekends in a row!  Fuck yes bitches.

Training - Big Workout Lower Body

Bodyweight - 240

4 inch block deads -
135x10 - knew I was in trouble on 135
225x3
315x1,1
405x1,1
500x1
585x1

Lunges - 6 sets of 20
Crunch - 3 sets of 20

Notes - Generally speaking, great deadlifting is not usually something that follows up a night of drinking monster and vodka until 3 in the morning.  I knew this session would be shit, but that's ok.  I had a great time with my friends and I have not been out in a while.

More on this tomorrow.

Chaos and Bang your Ears 5 WILL happen tonight!

..........with special guest Phil Stevens.  Hope to have it up for tomorrow.  This should be very interesting.

Ask and you shall receive............

Well everyone wants the "Death is winning..." shirt from the top of the page.  Well, mother fuckers, it's coming. At an affordable price.

I will be doing some in the 100% cotton like the previous shirts, and some (limited) in the poly-cotton.  If you want poly-cotton speak up now, so that way I can get an idea of how many I need to order.  The poly-cotton is my fave and makes me totally wet and hard.  I do like the 100% cotton ones I get from my printer however.

Training - Small Workout #2

Rear Delt Machine - 6 sets of 20
Cable Face Pulls - 4 sets of 20
Db Curls/Rope Pushdowns - 5 rounds of 15 or so

Notes - Felt good.  Have been doing some training fasted (just coffee) and feel fine.  I have pulled the carb loading back to 3 days a week, with only 2 dirty days and 1 clean carb load in the evenings (that'd be tonight).

Weight was 242.

Ode and origins

Yesterday my buddy Jim Wendler put up an article that I wrote a while back.  He texted me some time ago to ask me if he could use it for his site.  I said of course, no need to even ask.  But Jim cursed me, and said he'd always ask first.  I laughed.

I've had quite a few people ask me how I know Jim.  Well, here's the story.

It was over three years ago when I first sent Jim an e-mail.  Just basic training talk.  At that time, Jim's training was evolving into what everyone knows as 5/3/1 now.  The things he wrote at that time about training, resonated with me because it so closely echoed my own thoughts about what a training methodology should look like.  Grass roots/blue collar barbell lifting, focusing on basic movements, simple progression, and doing some hard conditioning.  Nothing new, and certainly nothing that other coaches and lifters haven't been doing for decades.  But you'd be hard pressed to find anyone talking about it then for the most part.  Especially at that time.

Grass roots barbell lifting had gotten buried under bands and chains and foam and all sorts of shit that never made sense to me.  All the strongest guys I knew of had gotten that way with a fucking barbell and dumbbells.  When did that go out of style?  Why was that not good enough anymore?  I was told "those guys could do anything and get fucking strong.  If you're not a genetic mutant, then you have to do other shit to get strong."

What the fuck?

If that were the case, then why did all of those guys CHOOSE to train that way?  They chose an inferior way of training?  Andy Bolton and Benni train like that.  So does Savickas.  So it's not like those guys don't know about other training methods, and yet they chose to train in a very basic fucking fashion.  You're telling me that if those guys all trained using these "advanced methods" they'd be even stronger?  Get the fuck outta here with that bottle of farts.  

People ignore simple training methods, because "there has to be a better way".  It's too simple.  I often think that most people that post on the internet that "train" (DYEL?) are more what I call, lifting intellectuals, than actual lifters.  They like to talk about training, and they like training methods that are fucking complex because, well, that gives them a lot of shit to talk about.

So this kind of shit, the kind that Jim was writing about, was too simple for them.  

Work harder?  

Add more weight to the bar?  

Do more reps?  

What are these things you speak of?  

There has to be a "better" way.  That's an inferior path.

Who the fuck said?

Why does there have to be a better way?  Because you aren't strong?  Someone is hiding something secret program from you?  Here's the real secret, no one is hiding anything.  And there isn't anything special about bands or chains or foam or special bars.  You can get as fucking strong and as developed as you're ever going to get with a very limited amount of equipment, and an unlimited amount of yearning to get better.

Fucking fact.  

But no one wants to really say that anymore.  At that time, Jim was the only guy I knew that was really writing that.  So I followed his log for a while. And we exchanged more training thoughts and ideas.  One day, I sent him an e-mail about this cougar I know, and how she had this guy that was always bothering her. I named that guy Max Cady after the character in Cape Fear.  Jim told me was jealous that he never thought of using that name for a woman stalker.  

From there our conversations took off, and we made a deal not to make a new e-mail.  Over the course of the next many months, Jim and I exchanged something to the tune of 700 replies in that one e-mail.  About lifting, life, music, porn, family, women, dogs, being a man, and about anything you can think of.  Things that I realized that my new book will be about.  What I named it.  Strength, life, legacy.  

I'd wake up in the morning and have some reply from Jim, and jesus tap dancing christ, he'd have sent me some picture that I won't describe here because some images you can't get out of your head.  And he'd fucking laugh about it.  He taunted me with a link for weeks to this video I wouldn't watch.  Finally I did.  I regretted it.  He still catches me now and again, as he did a few weeks ago when he asked me to look up Mr. Hands.  

I figured I'd use a shirtless pic of Jim, since someone  probably once said I was gay for him

I'm sure people would pay good money for those e-mails.  Aside from the horrific pictures he sent me, there was a shit ton of awesome training ideas and knowledge in our exchanges.  And I soon started blogging about my training ideas and philosophies.  I didn't care if anyone read it.  I did it because I had found that writing was a passion of mine, and it was something I could pour my creative energy into.  

I initially called my blog "functional-strength".  Because I hated that fucking phrase, and I wanted to redefine what that meant.  But I was just never happy with it.  So I eventually settled on lift-run-bang.  With "bang" being the variable.  It could mean anything.  Lift, run, football.  Lift, run, MMA.  Or....lift, run, bang.  Like banging some trim.  You get it.

So I wrote some articles that no one would read, but that was ok.  I liked having the outlet.  

Aynway, Jim read my shit and encouraged me to submit them to elitefts.  That was weird to me, because I had no background in writing, nor did I think anyone would want to read my shit.  But I did.  And the feedback was positive, so I continued.  And soon 5-12 people read my articles.    

My and Jim's ideas were so similar, I read in more than one place that "they seem to just rip each other off." in regards to the things we wrote about.  I laughed, and took that as a compliment.  Often times Jim would write something almost word for word on an article I would be working on.  And I'd have to scrap it because of that.  I always took it as a compliment anytime someone compared our work because I think Jim is a fantastic writer, and his article that he put up on t-nation sometime back, about overhead pressing is one of the best articles I've read about concerning lifting weights, in a long, long time.  

Jim and I also developed the what constitutes strong standards, and what we thought from a repping standpoint, that meant.  No bodyweight percentages, no formulas.  We didn't give a fuck about that shit. Weight on the fucking bar.  And how many reps can you do that with that shit.  Simple.  Just like our methodologies and ideas about training.

We also kept each other in check in our training.  One day Jim told me how much ass he had been kicking in his training.  How he'd been setting PR's at his lowest bodyweight in a long time, and how fucking awesome he felt overall from his conditioning.  

"I'm going to change some shit up." he told me.

"Fucking why?"

"Because I can make it better."  

"Sounds dumb.  But ok."  

Jim's a smart guy.........sometimes.  

I figured if he were making changes, he had a good reason for it.  However my train of thought has always been, when shit is going good, don't change a god damn thing.  Milk those times until the well is dry.  Then go back to the drawing board.  

A few weeks later he e-mailed me to tell me that he had fucked himself up.  I lit into him pretty good at that point.  Telling him "weeks ago, you told me you were hitting PR's and kicking ass.  And then you go and change shit like a dumbass.  Go back to fucking what you were doing.  Train twice a week, and limit what you're doing."  He listened, and then went a did a meet and went over 1750 raw.  Jim gave me credit for the nut punch that help get him back on track.  I was just glad I said something that helped him out.  Like I am with and try to do for anyone and everyone else.  

Lifer - 

Much like myself, when it comes to the iron, Jim is a lifer.  

Lifer - Someone who will/would continue to lift weights and train, even after the Armageddon has happened, and there would be no one around to see it.  

If we were the only two fuckheads left on the planet, we'd still lift weights.  Still run hills, and sprints, and talk about basic ways to get better.  

We're lifers because the lesson we learned, and that everyone has to learn if they really want to get better, is that you have to do this shit for you.  How many fucks do you think I give that someone is stronger than me?  Zero.  Zero fucks given.  

You know why?  Because there is someone stronger than everyone somewhere.  I have no control over that.  I only have control over my own shit, and what I can do about it.  So that's what I focus on.  That's what you should focus on.

The day you stop worrying about what other people are doing, and other people think about you in regards to training, is the day you take that a step towards getting better.  Because then you start making decisions to get better for YOU.  Not to please someone else, or find their approval.  You learn to stop asking permission, and know you don't need to ask for forgiveness.  Why?  Because it's your own god damn training.  Do what makes shit happen for you.  Grok that fucking motto, and you'll wake up one morning to the amazement that you're pretty fucking awesome, and you didn't need to give someone a rusty trombone in order to get that way.  You did shit like it needed to be done for you.

Embrace that attitude.  Embrace becoming a lifer.  When you're a lifer, you know the little victories add up.  5 pounds on the bar this week, and 5 in a month, and 5 more in 6 months just increased one of my big lifts by 15 pounds.  I didn't need to run some special Russian secret program in order to add that weight in a few weeks, only to realize you can't sustain those gains.  I did it slowly, methodically, and that way, they became cemented in the foundation of my strength.

Thanks....

My ode to Jim is that lift-run-bang never exists without the support and friendship he has given me over the years.  I could have never helped the people I have, if Jim hadn't given me a similar nut punch to write and get my ideas out, and take a few steps forward.  For most people, those first few steps are the hardest.  To have someone there to encourage you enough to take those steps, can be the single biggest factor in making something happen.

I think it's always important to acknowledge the people who make a positive difference in your life, and I wanted to do that with this post, acknowledging Jim and how much he helped me in getting my feet off the ground, so to speak.

Thanks, fucker.  

  

Weekly Q&A

Read this story.........

This Chic was hurt over all the talk about how fat she was.  So she lost 25 l b's.

I have another story to talk about on this weekends podcast that also backs up my theory, that if your girl is fat and you want her to loose weight, hurt her god damn feelings about it.  "You're fat.  Loose weight."  And she will.  If she breaks it off, then you can go find a smaller chic.  Win, win.  It pays to listen to me.

Anyway, leave a name and a question.  If you have a Q for the podcast LEAVE ONE QUESTION.  You guys leaving 5 questions for the podcast are retarded.  One.  If you have a Q for me, just like with banging women, I can do multiples.........

Small Workout #1

Upright Rows - 95 x 6 sets of 12 - 30 seconds in between
Bent Laterals - 20's x 3 sets of 2 - 30 seconds in between

Notes - Am making some minor changes.  More steady state.  Every morning in fact, and doing it fasted (coffee only).  Taking the number of small workouts up to 4, so I'll be doing 2 big sessions and 4 small ones during the week.

For the back loading I am tweaking it a bit as well.  2 dirty back loads a week only now.  Tuesday and Sunday nights.  I will do 1 clean backload on Saturday nights in prep for Sunday's workout.

My bodyweight is creeping up and I'm not happy about it.  I was 252 this morning after last nights carb load.  Gotta get my shit back down.

Training - Big Session Upperbody #1

Bodyweight - 245
Close Grip Bench - All singles paused
barx40,30
135x10
185x5
225x4
275x3
315x2
365x1
405x1
315x11

Cut it short because I felt something twinge in my left bicep.  Nothing major just cut it at 11.  Definitely had 15 in me.  Bench felt strong.

Chins - major suckage.  I didn't realize how sore my lats were from the rack pulls.

Seated Db Press - 110's x 12

Notes - This was one of those rare sessions that falls between an 80% and a -10%.  It started off ok but then totally went into the toilet.  That deadlift session from Sunday I think took a lot out of me.  I plan on eating a lot tonight.

Big and Small sessions

This is going to be a big part of the new big-15 program and has given me a way to kind of pin down the "type" of sessions to be done during a template.

This could have gone in the book but I will give you guys this out of the fucking goodness of my plums.

It seems simplistic, because it is.  But one of the great things about simply applying a label to a session, is that it reminds you of what it's about.

Big sessions are essentially sessions where you use multi joint movements, and move as much weight as possible.  Usually 1-3 "big" movements are done in a big session.  Volume is more limited, and a bigger emphasis is placed on working as hard as possible.  After the big movements, lesser movements can be done as supportive work, or not, depending on feel.

Big workout.......

A big lower body session could be squats with a 50% set, followed up by hamstring curls and calves.  Or it could be squats then hack squats, then some calves if after those two big movements you are spent.

Upperbody is always a push, a pull, then either some light assistance work, or a secondary press.  The secondary press can be done in a myriad of ways.  Volume with light to medium weight, or up to a heavy ass single, if you went balls out reps on the first press.  There is some playing room after the first push and pull.  This is the time where you get to play a little bit, but also work hard.

These are your hardest sessions of the week.  Pretty much no matter who you are, 2-3 is going to be the max number of big sessions you will do in a given week.

A small session are usually single joint movements, but can be multi joint.  However an emphasis is placed on volume, working fast, and not worrying too much about progression, but not throwing it away all together.  A small workout would be something like face pulls for 6 sets of 20, then curls and triceps and abs.  All in a circuit or just with very little rest.

Cable face pulls.  A new fave and this chic is jacked too, which is uper cool

You don't have to go heavy to make this work, and in fact, the emphasis should be on going light, and resting very little to force as much blood through the working area as possible.

Some high level overview ways to think about splitting up your big and small sessions -

Training for absolute mass - 3 big and 3 small - You will actually have 2 upper and 2 lower workouts that you rotate in here.  So one week you'd do upperbody #1 and #2, and lower body #1, and the next week lowerbody #1 and #2, and upperbody #1.  You can even split this across 1,2,3 workouts for upper and lower as well.  I would not exceed three however.

Training for recomp - 2 big 1-3 small - Basically, this is for guys like myself, who are near their peak, need a little more recovery time, but still work hard as fuck to make gains.  I can't do 3 big sessions anymore because of the poundage I move.  No, I'm not Kazmier, but for me, the lifts I move I don't recovery fast enough from anymore to train 3X a week.  That's why the little sessions are so beautiful.  I can do 2-3 little sessions on top of my big ones, and fill in all the cracks to what is usually a very limited program.

Training with in-season sports - 1-2 big 1-2 small Not a lot different than training for a recomp, but possibly training even less.  For a guy that is training in MMA for example, he could even get away with 1 big lower session (squats and deads), and 1 small session (pull aparts, arms, abs, calves) one week, then 1 big upper body session the next week (incline, rows, clean and press) and 1 small lower body session (lunges, leg curls, calves).

These templates and splits leave LOTS of room for individualizing and customization.  The important thing to remember is what a big workout is, and what a small workout is.  Jesus fucking christ, don't ask "can I do db bench presses on the small workout day".  Do that on a big workout day.  The small sessions are not supposed to zap recovery much if AT ALL.  Use the small sessions to hit stuff like rear delts, cuff work, biceps and triceps, and rehab any nagging injuries.  If you're a bodybuilder, use them to do stuff like bring up lagging bodyparts by targeting those areas with an isolation movement.

This is part of the new foundation of my ideology because I have really evolved my training into this, and it has worked beautifully.

More on this in Strength - Life - Legacy.

Shirt Poll.....without a poll button thingee

So I want to say thanks to all you guys that bought shirts.  But I'm still getting asked about the shirt in my pic above, with the fist and my motto.

Would you guys prefer a shirt with that logo over the current one?  I did get my printing company to invert the colors on the current design and I think that's what was missing.  Check it out now.......

Anyway, if you guys like both designs I will get my designer to make a new "get fisted" shirt like the one above as well, but at a more affordable cost.

You fellas give me some input.

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff....

Glad I got that 725 rack pull out of the way.  Now on to pull 750, and 800.  I don't rest on my laurels long because I already start focusing on a new goal.  Why would I?  I pulled it.  It's done.  I celebrated the work I put in to get that for about 3 minutes, and then I realized what a pussy I was for not being able to pull that easily from the floor, and set my mind on 750.

Obviously my strongman deadlift cycle is working.  I missed 725 the last time from that same height with straps.  Again, the only time I use straps is at the fancy gym, where chalk is a no no.  I don't mind using straps sometimes, because as you can see, grip is not an issue.  But I had wondered how 725 would feel in my hands coming off the pins.  No problems.

The book is pretty much finished.  I need to get pictures for a bunch of stuff, and I need to refine lots of chapters but for the most part, it's done.  Expect it out in maybe 4 weeks or so.

No Chaos and Bang podcast this week.  Jamie is out.  So we'll have one for next weekend.

Carb up last night was 4 slices of pizza, 20 cookies, and a bowl of ice cream.

Bodyweight hasn't really moved.  Still about 245-248 pounds give or a take a Snickers.  My guess is whatever is going to happen with this diet is going to take some time, not 6-10 weeks.  Most of the people I read that were on it, saw results after a significant period of time.  Not like two months.  And I'm good with that.

So my other cat, Biscuits, he comes around a ton now.  Ever since Tully died (my 23 year old cat) he's been real social.  Before, I barely saw him.  He just hung out in the basement.  Now he comes upstairs all the time, hanging the fuck out, acting like shits been cool for years.  Cats are weird man.

Don't have a ton to write because I'm fucking tired as shit, and had a fairly lazy weekend.  I hope all of you did something nice for mom on mothers day.

One of you bitches ask me what my diet looks like now..........

Training - Big Session #1 and a huge PR

Bodyweight - 245

Warm Ups - leg ext 4x20

Below the Knee Rack Pulls -
135x10
225x3
315x1
405x1
500x1
585x1
635x1
675x1
725x1 FUCK YES

Speed Skater Squats -
body 3 sets of 10
+100 (2 50 pound bells) 3 sets of 10

Ab Wheel - 3x10

Notes - Fuck yes, finally pulled the 725 from below the knee.  Even better, no straps.  Before when I pulled from below the knee I was generally at the gym, and they no likey chalk.  So I'd wear straps, and I missed this the last time I tried it....with straps.  No straps, and once it broke, shit felt fine.

Custom Search At Top

I grabbed the custom search engine from Google and implemented here at LRB.  It searches through comments so everyone is good to go in that regard.

Small Workout #2

Bodyweight - 247

Cable Face Pulls - 10 sets of 20
Triceps - 5 sets
Calves - stack x 15,10
Cardio - treadmill suckage for 15

Recomp Plan and other shit

So one may ask where I've been going with all of this IF and carb backload type dieting and questions about my training.

Here's the whole fuckin show.

I've said for a while that I need to be a bigger "242".  The goal for a while has been to be as lean as possible at 242-245 or so for a while.  So instead of dieting down to 225 and eating back up, and repeating this 10 times, these recomp style diets look better to me.  In other words, it may take 8-16 months or whatever for it to happen, but I'm not dieting down, then up, then down, then up, etc to do it, while my strength goes up and down, up and down.

Training split - 

My training has evolved right out of the new big-15 split, with the strongman deadlifting program I also outlined in the book.

So basically, I do 2 big and 1-2 small workouts all week, and then do conditioning 3-4 times a week, maybe more, but sometimes less if I feel especially tired.

So generally it looks like this.......

Tuesday - 
Upperbody #1
Staple Press - with 50% set if my pec minor can handle it
Staple Pull - with 50% set or if it's a row, high volume
Secondary Press - either a top set to failure, more volume, or a top single.  All depends on how I feel and what I want to do.

Thursday - 
Small workout #1
usually Upright Rows, curls, and triceps

Saturday - 
Small workout #2
usually rear delts, curls, calves, abs

Sunday -
Lowerbody #1
Strongman Deadlift Cycle (runs 5 weeks at a time then repeats)

The next week I run upperbody #2 lowerbody #2, etc.  Sometimes I have three rotational days, so the third week could be upperbody #3 so forth and so on, but not usually.

Right now, I'm not worried about hitting max singles, and anyone that has followed my training posts here knows I generally don't do much of that unless I'm getting ready for a meet.  My personal opinion is that everyone should be training to get as big as fucking possible all year, except for when it's time to prep for a meet, and then switch gears.  I don't give a shit about hitting big singles at home or at the gym.  Save the big ones for a meet.  Otherwise, who cares?  Really?  I don't understand working to hit a PR in the gym in one of the three powerlifts.  Do a fucking meet so that it actually meant SOMETHING.

And when you're not meet training, be training with reps, constantly trying to push the envelope there.  I am using the strongman deadlift cycle I created because I still can't squat heavy.  And the strongman deadlift program is mainly made up of fronts and pause squats with various deadlifts.

I do not need to train in a pure mass building fashion like I have outlined in the new big-15, because I am not after a shit ton more of mass.  I am probably damn close to my genetic ceiling in terms of muscle mass.  I am after a bit more refinement and brutal fucking strumpf.  If I wanted to get bigger, and by bigger I mean like 260ish lean, I'd have to do things I'm not willing to do anymore.  Namely, eat bigger, train more often, and run cycles I'm not willing to run.  My mentality is that you should be strong all the time.  Not because you're on cycle.  Jesus fucking Christ, guys like that annoy me.  If you can't hit 93% of what you hit in the meet year round, you're fucking up.  Period.  Change your mentality and quit being a drug whore.

Eating schedule - 

I think I've outlined this about 100000 times in the comment, but sure enough the next post someone asks me "what does your diet look like?"

First off, let me state that my diet is for ME.  Most guys I know my size, have to eat a shit ton of food to maintain 245-250.  I can eat very little to maintain, and eat what every calculator says I should be eating for maintenance to GAIN weight.  You need to figure out your own macros and calories in order to do what is best for you.

But just for your edification here is what a day might look like.........

5-6 a.m. - wake, coffee with whipping cream.  Generally a whole pot.
9 a.m. - 1 scoop of protein powder in water (not always though)
11-:30 - 12:00 - McDonalds Bacon Ranch Grilled Chicken Salad w/ extra chicken breast or 1-2 Turkey burgers and veggies.
2:30 - 3:00 - 2 scoops isolate with 2 tbs peanut butter
4:30 - 5:00 - coffee with coconut oil and 1/2 scoop of isolate
5:00-6:00 - train
6:30 on - eat a shit ton of food.

On a non training day, just take out the "shit ton of food" and replace it with a meal similar to the 11:30 - 12:00 meal.  I also sometimes have some cottage cheese and peanut butter before bed, around 9:30 or so.  It just all depends on how hungry I am.


Who shouldn't do this -

This kind of eating, IMO, is for guys who are already very close to where they want to be in terms of mass or bodyfat, just not perfect on either side of the spectrum.  Or guys that want to pare down bodyfat in a very slow manner.

So I'm running about 12% at 245, where I'd like to be more like 8% at 240.

So that leaves smaller guys who are trying to gain as much mass as possible.  You should not eat like this.  There is no reason not to get up and try to shove as many calories down your throat as possible each day.  That's what I had to do when I was younger, and what every guy I know had to do in order to actually grow.

I think a guy higher in bodyfat could do ok with it as well, but he'd most likely be better off doing something like a normal bodybuilder low carbish diet, and not stuffing his face post training.  Just my opinion.

Guys that want to do it because they see me doing it, should not be doing it unless they are in a similar spot (as close to being as big and as lean as they want).  I did not get the mass and strength I have by eating this way.  I did it via more traditional methods.

You need to remember, that my training and eating is always geared for ME in that point in time.  The things I write about come from knowing what guys need to do to get to that next level.  So if you're an intermediate, I know what you need to do to get to advanced.  But advanced guys need to be smart enough to tweak their shit more uniquely.

To me, these kinds of diets aren't really meant for guys still finding their way.  Even Chris Duffin wrote that if you are training for pure mass, IF style diets aren't the best option.  It's not.  If you're trying to gain a shit ton of mass, eating as much and as often as possible is the best way.

Stop being lazy - 

This is a side rant actually.  Some of you guys need to quit being so lazy and learn how to use Google and my own search bar.

I've literally logged over 800 articles/posts here and I get asked the same questions week in and week out.  Seriously guys, use the search function before you ask a basic question.  More than likely, I've answer it 58 times already.  I've outlined the diet above at least 4-5 times this past week in comments.  And it keeps getting asked.  "What does your eating look like?"

Take 2 minutes out of your internet surfing time, and do a search on your question first, or some keywords.  If you don't find what you're looking for, hit me up.  But if the info is already there, use it.  Saves you and me time.

Now go fucking train!

Training - Small Workout

Bodyweight - 244

Upright Rows -
bar x 40
95x5
135x5
155x4
175x3
205x2
235x1
185x10-10-8-5-5-5-5 1 minute rest between each set

Poundstone Curls - empty bar x 70 reps

Pullover Extensions - 65x25,25
Flat Flyes - 20's x 25,25,25,25

Notes - Really tired tonight.  Can't wait to eat more carbs.

Training - Upperbody #1

Bodyweight - who gives a fuck

Db Bench - 140's x 5 setup was all fucked up, 140's x 11

Chins - 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3

Dips - body x 20,20,20

Notes - Felt like ass but pushed through as hard as I could.  Now to eat the nectar of the gods.  You know, carbs.

Chaos and Bang Your Ears 4

You'll be blown away by how much we talk about lifting in this one.

Oh wait you won't, be barely cover any lifting.

In this one..........

Avengers
Match.com chic who was taking dudes for free dinners
What not to wear to the gym
Warming up and animalz
Best bad guys movies
The Karate Kid
Mustaches
Bodyweight shit
The Careless Whisper
Drugs
The UFC and being too PC
Lazy sex
Rating women on looks
Shit in bars

Why men and women can't be friends.

Video says it all.

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff.....

Avengers - Well I went and saw it.  It was beyond awesome.  I hate to even use awesome because it's not an apt enough word really.  Joss Whedon did some things with this film that should make every director in Hollywood take a step back, and ask themselves if they are working hard enough.

The film was full of comedy, however unlike most action films, the lines did not feel cheap or forced like you'd normally hear in action movies.  Also, rather than trying to make a plot that was clever or unique, he focused on what everyone came to see.  The characters.  And he managed to give each character equal screen time and attention.  No one character overshadowed the other.  No one character seemed more important or less important.  And even though a lot of time wasn't spent on character development (that's what each characters own movies were for) he was able to add more depth to each of them as the film went.

Can't talk enough about this movie and how fantastic it was.

Sometimes reality is far stranger than fiction.  Especially when it comes to women.

This week my buddy broke up with his girlfriend.  The reason, if you can get your head around this, is because he told her that guys like to bang hot chics.

I'm not joking.

Basically, this chic has a lot of guy "friends".  You know who you are.  Orbiters.  You are friends with some hot chic that says you guys are friends, but the truth is you want to bang her.  Let me say again that if the chic is attractive, you cannot be friends with her.  We all know this.  Stop pretending like "oh yeah, we can just be friends."  JFC......no, we can't be "just friends" with women we find attractive.  That makes you an orbiter, and everyone knows what you are doing.

I won't lie.  I hate you fuckers.  I hate orbiters.  I know some orbiters will read this, and from me to you....get a fucking life.

Get the fuck out of here with your friends bullshit!

If a girl puts you in the "we're just friends zone", just go away.  Seriously, the guys that are dating her know what you're doing, and fucking hate it, hate you, and wants to beat your face in.  Orbiters are men not suave enough to land the pussy.  You are desperate little fucking assholes who pray and hopes for a chance that somehow and someway this girl will throw pity on you then you get to date or bang her.  You are the definition of the beta male.  Either kill yourself, so we can thin the herd, or man the fuck up and stop "being friends" with chics.

Now with that out of the way.  This 24 year old dumbass, believed that all of these guys that she hung out with, really just wanted to be friends.  After a while, my buddy got tired of it, and told her what was up.  Well, truth is, he did what every guy does about this.

Namely, was a hypocrite and lied.

He tells her "of course guys and girls can be friends, I'm just friends with so-n-so."  But the fact is, he was orbiting (and yes I ripped him a new asshole over this) and then turning around and telling his own girl, that all these other guys wanted to bang her.  You can't have it both ways.

Let me give you some advice about this, fellas.  Always be honest about this shit.  Then you save yourself this particular headache.  You're a male.  You want to bang hot chics.  Just because you're dating a girl, she should understand that it doesn't mean you won't find other women attractive, or that if you were single, you would want to bang them.  This particular chic, didn't even understand that if my buddy were single, he'd want to be banging hot chics.  Yes, she is that ignorant, but he's partly to blame as well.  I mean, he's the one that established that lie by telling her shit like "well I'm not a walking erection, I don't want to just bang everything out there."

Lie.

And these kinds of lies are the things that will kill a relationship.  If your woman doesn't understand simple biology, find a fucking new one that comes with a working brain.  Because yours is not in possession of one.

Not to be clear, I'm not saying men can't be faithful.  We can.  But this girl didn't even understand that a SINGLE guy would want to be banging it out left and right with hot chics if he had the chance.  You can't fix stupid, I suppose.

And any guy that responds to this with "I have a life long friends that is attractive and I would never hit it" is either gay, a liar, or has no balls.  Fact.

Today is the last day of my less than 30 grabs of carbs a day.  I was supposed to go 1 more day, but I had to make a decision between 9 and 11 days (because I don't work out on the 10th day) so I did 9.  Nothing magical is going to happen tomorrow anyway.

Anytime I do super low carb it just reminds me of how much it sucks, how stupid it is, and the fact that you can't get big and fucking strong doing it.  And if you're a novice, a fat guy, or some guy that benches 245 or whatever, you don't count.  There is a reason why the biggest and strongest mother fuckers walking the earth don't eat this way when they are trying to get even bigger and stronger is because you can't retardely big and strong eating low fucking carb.  Because you know, carbs fucking fuel workouts, insulin is the strongest hormone in the body, and insulin is the fucking driver behind muscle tissue rebuilding.  Loading on carbs increases ATP storage, and more ATP means more contractile power.  More contractile power means you are fucking stronger, and you being fucking stronger means you get bigger.  More carbs also means more calories, and one big myth that still goes around is that you can get leaner and bigger at the same time.  No you fucking can't.  Growing lean muscle tissue absolutely requires a calorie surplus, and losing fat absolutely requires an energy deficit.  This is god damn fact.

Insulin increases MPS, which is the requirement for muscle growth.  You cannot fucking do this to any great extent in a carb depleted state.  There is a reason why bodybuilders use low carb diets to strip bodyfat, and then eat carbs like crazy in the offseason.

Eats whole pizzas before bed

Now once you throw anabolics into the mix, the rules do change a bit.  But not as much as you think.  Mainly, a guy on anabolics holds onto his mass much better dieting than a guy not on them.  But if you want to get bigger and stronger, forget Paleo and carb depleted diets.  Fucking eat carbs.  When I was doing the intermittent fasting diet, I was eating a shit ton of carbs, and once I acclimated to it a bit, I deadlifted 500x12 (almost 13), did dumbbell benches with the 140's for 12, and inclined 315x11.  Now 9 days into a fucking carb depleted state I could barely eek out 5 sets of 10 with 135 on upright rows last night.  It has nothing to do with "being a pussy" and everything to do with basic fucking physiology.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1234807/


Insulin stimulates human skeletal muscle protein synthesis

"So why did you stop IF?"

Just didn't feel right with me.  I was drinking too much diet coke and other stimulates to make it through the 16 hour fast.

Truth is, the carb backloading approach kind of uses some similar ideas as IF (fasting until lunch) but then incorporates ideas I have had for some time, through trial and error.  Namely, if I had been eating lower carbs for a few days, and felt flat, I'd end up eating a shit ton of junk one night, wake up the next day looking leaner and without fail, would have a kick ass workout.  More anecdotal evidence for the win.

My plan of attack is to carb backload on all workout nights and one other night (Saturday) before my hardest workout of the week.  So 4 days of carbs, 3 days of basically 30 grams of carbs or less a day.  I can work with this.  I cannot fucking work with 30 grams of carbs a day or less, for even a god damned week.  Not when I'm trying to get stronger and more awesome.

So here's to ice cream and doughnuts tonight.  And hopefully some good workouts by the time the weekend rolls around.