Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff - I'm f'n tired edition

I did 30 minutes of hard weighted vest yesterday morning, then had a hard training session last night.  I'm pretty pooped today and I feel like my lunesta is still kicking my ass right now for some reason.  

For those of you that didn't listen to the podcast or haven't because it's on 4shared, one of the things we talked about was the fact that we do these things for free.  Yet some people have such a sense of entitlement that they complain about it being on 4shared, or ask when we are putting it on iTunes.

First off, we're not putting it on iTunes.  We don't like Apple or "i" shit.  So it's not happening.  

Second, it takes all of 5 seconds to sign up for 4shared.  If you "refuse to listen to it because it's on 4shared" then you can eat a bag of dicks for all I care.  Again, we take time out of our life in order to do this, put it out for free, and people still complain about the format or where it's hosted at?  

Bag of Lexington Steel dicks.  Eat on it. 

Now as far as the quality of information in that podcast?  Top notch.  Again, big thanks to Kiefer for joining us and we most definitely will have him back on.      

I put up my training session as usual last night, and several peeps asked if I could throw up a vid of Pendlay rows the next time.  No problem.  I will say that it's going to look just like the way Glenn teaches it, because well, it's a Pendlay row and he's Glenn Pendlay.  Meaning, there is zero hip movement and my back stays in a static position.  

Thus, like this.......

But since I'm in one of those fucking moods this morning, let's show what is NOT a Pendlay row......

You can clearly see the hip action involved in the video below.  This is not a Pendlay row.  

Same shit here from the same guy......notice the english used by the hips and back.....

Not even close....but at least ol boy admits that it was shit......

I don't know what this shit is, but anyone who does it should be thrown into a fucking well......

As a friend and I discussed, a 315x8 REAL Pendlay row is going to be pretty rare, and very boss.  When I say a REAL Pendlay, I mean with no hip "english".  You simply pull the bar into your upper abs and that's it.  If there is any hip english at all, it's null and void.  Sorry if people don't like "standards" but Glenn taught it that way, so that's how it goes.  Lemme give you a quick hint here what all the people who did them wrong did.  Their hips are too low.  The hips should be HIGH and you should be flat backed.  That will help curb the "english".  The hips do the same thing in this row, that they do in the deadlift.  Namely, throw the shoulders forward over the bar to give you proper leverage against the weight before you can really lift it.  If you keep the hips high enough and DO NOT DIP THEM, you'll do the row properly.  

Let me also add that why are people doing sloppy as fuck rows anyway?  The whole point of a row, is to build your rhomboids.  What happens when you get sloppy is you ask the erectors and traps to get involved, and that's what deadlifts are for.  So you short circuit the benefits of the row by turning it into a half row/half deadlift.  Just deadlift if you're going to do that shit.  Use the row for what it is for.  Building the rhomboids and mid-back.  You can't concentrate on squeezing the rhomboids and all of the back together if you go too heavy.  

I ran these up to 275 for 2 sets of 3 last night, however 225x8 felt best because I could really squeeze with it.  This felt about perfect.  Will get a vid up when I can.  I will be in Vegas next week and my schedule there is slammed so I may not even get out to a gym during that time.  We will see.

Questions, questions, questions.....I'm answering fewer of them now because there is a search function here that will find just about anything you can ask.  Also, that pesky Strength, Life, Legacy book I wrote answers about anything I can think of as well.  This pains me a bit, however I can only answer "what do you think of whole body routines?" so many times before I feel like punching an old lady in the face repeatedly.  

So an interesting conversation between me and a good friend yesterday.  He's a former high level powerlifter mind you, so know that going into this.  

Eric Spoto benches 700 in a meet, in front of a crowd of about....27 people.  "Powerlifting is a dull, boring, sport that no one really gives a shit about."  he says.  I know this already.  Most powerlifters know this already too.  

Fact is, strongman and crossfit games (yes god dammit, crossfit games) are more fun to watch, and have about eleventy billion more hot women (yes, this matters to me).  Meets are 9 hours long, boring, and fairly unspectacular, mostly comprised of fat guys not lifting very much.  I'm not slamming anyone, but that's generally the case.  

When I started writing the 365 manual, I realized that even though I compete (rarely), I'm just as happy not competing, but still want to be as strong, jacked, and boss as I can be, because that's part of who I am.  This is what kind of gave birth to the LRB/365 idea.  Most guys don't want to compete, or maybe they do, but not right now.  However it doesn't mean they don't want to look fucking awesome, be strong and in shape.  They don't want to associate with something like Crossfit however, to do that.  Your training philosophy has to speak to you as an individual and resonate with who you are as well.  Something you can identify with, and associate yourself with.  It's the "buy in" I talk about, within a training methodology.  

So many guys choose training "styles" also based on who or what that training style is associated with.  In the 90's I was a huge Dorian Yates fan, so I trained very much like him.  I made great progress that way too, and I really identified with the things Dorian had to say about training.  Eventually over time, I developed all of the things that worked best for me.  Not just because the application of said training methods worked for me, but because I identified with the "attitude" behind training that way.  

So to come back around to all of this, I had to put yet another meet aside.  In the past, I would go into a funk about this because I still love to compete.  This time however, I went right into a training plan for the things I could do while my leg heals and had zero funk about it.  This is a lesson I constantly preach to myself, but don't always apply it as well as I'd like to.  This time, I did.  So I'm not competing, but I'm still hell bent on getting better and hitting some goals before I do.  I've had periods of laziness in my training the last year or so, but I feel invigorated again and I have no doubt you're going to see a much bigger, better, and stronger PC in the next year.  And that's what LRB/365 is all about.  

Let me add that if you don't have a weighted vest, go get one.  Best thing I've done in forever in regards to conditioning.  Easy on the joints and you will work, son.  Mine is only 40 pounds.  When you're 250, 40 pounds is enough.  30 minutes at a solid clip is nothing to sneeze at.  Going up hills becomes very interesting again.  I should have picked one up a long time ago.  It will be a mainstay in the 365 manual so if you can't find one, get a backpack and throw some weights in it.  Not as ideal, but it will still work.

Oh yeah, and speaking of powerlifting I have a client that went 9/9 with 4 world records this past weekend at the 100% raw meet in Vegas.  I also have a strongman competitor who put his wife on my program and she hit a 50 pound PR in the squat, and PR's in the bench and dead.  If you're not getting stronger......bullet to the chest.  

I need some caffeine.....