Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff - Your own training life cycle, even more on reps, LRB/365, and my training

I hope errbody had a jet setter lavishly styled weekend.  That sentence is dripping with sarcasm if you didn't catch it somehow.  I'm pretty positive all you did was sit around and watch football, eat shitty food, and contemplated awesome plans that never transpired.

So let's kick this Columbus day off right then, shall we?

Your own training chronological timeline - 

The last few weeks, for whatever reason, I have spent a lot of time thinking about my training and how it has evolved the last decade or so.  I wrote that piece about the chronological timeline of my training, and it got me to thinking about all of the days that I spent pushing sets as hard as possible, with rest/pause and strip sets and all various ways to force my body to respond to training stimulus.

Over time, I have adopted a more methodical approach to my training.  Leaving a rep in the tank, going conservative in programming, and coaxing out little gains here and there.  I personally believe that both methods are warranted and have a place.  It just all depends on where you are at in your training life.

I've had a lot of guys write in to me that got a late jump in life to lifting and seem bummed because they feel they "lost" out by not lifting when they were young, and having all of those years to build their base.  Maybe, maybe not.  What I do know is, you won't get any further sitting around worrying about lost time.  The second thing I know is this.  Because you're still a beginner, you can train your balls off using all of those perceived intensity methods, and make up for lost time.

The one thing you should have noticed in my training timeline was that, it only took me a few years to get to about 85% or so of where I am now.  I honestly feel this is pretty normal.  Now, is that work "cemented" like it is now?  No.  What I mean by that is, is the strength foundation as solid as it is now,after 23 years?  Of course not.  I wouldn't expect it to be.  The initial makings of it were though.  The difference between me and 14 when I started, and me just 4 years later at 18 were nothing short of miraculous.  I see no reason why if you start at 33 or 40 or 51, that you can't have the same kind of results in a similar period of time.

So my answer to your question(s) of "did I shortchange myself by starting so late?" is a general "no".  Yes, you lost some time on having your foundation already in place by starting late.  But from a results standpoint, you could be in the same place strength/conditioning/muscular wise at 43 if you started at 33, then if you started at 18 IF IF IF you are smart about your training.  That means not fucking around for years doing unproductive shit.  So the real shorting coming is this, you can't spend any time bouncing around from routine to routine, trying to find "shortcuts" and ways to circumvent the process.

Going back to my point about hard training vs coaxing.......you need to train fucking hard.  I mean ball busting hard.  There's no reason you can't if you're still a noob.  Your strength is shit, your recovery is good in relation to it.  Go balls out to failure for medium to high reps and try like hell to get more reps, or more weight on the bar every week.  It's that simple.

There will come a point where doing that, no longer pays the kinds of dividends that is worth the effort.  In other words, if your effort is a 9 on a scale of 1-10 and your results are a 8 or 9, then keep blasting your balls off.  Eventually the body will get closer to it's genetic ceiling, and most of that kind of training returns a result of about 4.  Not worth the level 9 effort.  Coaxing gains is slow and methodical, but it works, and you don't have to beat the living shit out of yourself day in and day out, week after week.

You just need to be honest with yourself about where you are at in your training life cycle, and what level of effort you need, and what level of effort you can generate on a weekly basis.

Let me also say that if you train long enough, you may need to return to those ball busting roots every so often to get over a hump.  There is no perfect way to time or plan all of this out.  It really comes to back to your own desires and goals.  I had years there where just training was good enough.  I had years where the desire really burned to get past some plateaus as well.  Over the course of your training life, there will be an ebb and flow to it.  This is pretty natural.  Otherwise, you're just going to burn yourself out with the ball busting shit, or you're going to go nowhere because you coasted for too long.

No one can give you a lifetime plan for when you need to wake up to realize you haven't gotten better in the last two years, or to tell you "hey, you've gotten injured 14 times in the last 6 months...it's time to slow down."  You need to figure some of this shit out on your own.

Repping - 

So I wrote an article last week about repping, and happenstance has brought me across more and more and more shit that just speaks volumes to me how repping is really the cornerstone of getting fucking strong.  Not god damn singles.

Kaz is possibly the strongest human that ever walked the planet top to bottom.  That we know of.  Kaz lived on sets of 10-20.  During his bench cycle he did eventually work down to a triple, but outside of that he repped his nuts off.

Lived off reps

Ronnie Coleman is possibly the largest bodybuilder of all time.  Lived on reps.

Stan Efferding.  The strongest bodybuilder of all time.  Lives on reps for the majority of the year.  In other words, that's where his foundation comes from.

Derek Poundstone.  Reps.

Dorian Yates.  Reps.

Doug Young.  Reps.

Lived off reps and chest pubes

Strongmen in general.  Reps.

Yes, drugs and all that jazz too, I got it.  The game is the same on the natural or drugged end.  None of the biggest and strongest guys on the planet got that way, training predominantly on singles.  NONE.

I write this again because I see so many guys now that live on singles as the mainstay of their program.  I don't care what anyone tells you, living in the 5-12 rep range will give you everything you need, 95% of the time.  Sprinkle in some weeks of singles here and there (or use them as your primer for your back off sets like I do), but BEAT REP PR's.  Again, 90-95% of your training should be in that 5+ rep range work.  Triples are fun too, and triples can do anything singles can do really, so why bother living "single"?

For every one guy you can tell me that used singles predominantly to build an elite level of strength I will show you 20 that used reps as their mainstay.

I don't need to whip out studies to prove this.  I will just whip out 5 decades of bodybulders, then powerlifters, then strongmen who all based their training around reps.  I know this seems like such a simple concept but certain training philosophies, mainly certain geared training philosophies, have pushed max singles on a weekly basis.

Mix in some heavy singles from time to time.  Just don't live on them.

LRB/365 - 

LRB/365 is in the works and is going to be pretty damn cool.  LRB/365 is for you guys and gals, that may not want to compete, but still want to be as massive, strong, and conditioned as you can get.  Not everyone wants to don a unitard and lift in a boring and slow competition that is called powerlifting.  If you don't, but you still want to be strong and fucking awesome, this will give you an entire year of planning to strength peak, cut bodyfat and get into shape, maintain your strength foundation while doing so, strength peak again, then build mass.  All setup so that you only need to figure out what your specific goals are for each cycle.

My training - 

To tie all of this in, I have really started going back to my roots for this training cycle.  I've needed to do this for a while, and it's time.  My quad still isn't 100% so I am going to have to dial down expectations for this meet, squat wise.  A cort shot should be in the works this week, I hope.  Aside from that, I think that going back to what I've always known, and that's beating rep PR's, is a great option for my squatting right now.  I intended to do that yesterday but something popped in my low back (I feel fine today) and my calf.  Both are just a little tender and I know why it happened.  I had some drainage for a few days and had been on sudafed.  Generally if I am on sudafed I have to be very careful because it really dries me out something awful.

So expect to see me really implementing reps back into my squat training again.  I honestly doubt at this point I will go heavier than 500 in prep for this meet, then let the chips fall where they may on meet day.  If I can have 4-5 more productive squat works using a lesser intensity but busting some rep PR's, I think I still might do ok.  My enthusiasm is a bit more tempered because last week I felt great with no pain, but this week I've been fairly achy.

Facebook Sausage Fests - 

I've had it.  Fed the fuck up.  I am so done with seeing hot women put up pics of themselves for nothing more than the adoration of sackless sheep, aka beta and omega males, to line up and write "omg you're so beautiful."  Or "if I were there I'd treat you like a princess."

I haven't figured out which I hate more.  The brainless bitches that do this, or the sackless fucks that line up to tell her how hot she is.  Jason Pegg and I have been blowing up these little sausage fests now, and we thoroughly enough it.

Let me spell it out to you fucking bozo's that do this shit, and I hope none of my readers do this shit.

You're never going to get that, ok?  Fact.

You lining up and selling your manhood and self respect by groveling over a chic on FB just makes you look like a fucking douche.  Stop doing this shit, and get your sack back.  You never EVER see men with options (read, THAT CAN GET WOMEN!) doing this shit.  EVER.  Why?  Because they know it actually lowers their value in that chics eyes.

I grew up with this chic that ended up in Playboy.  On her Facebook page, she literally would put shit like "I need my yard mowed...." and 15 guys would post "I'll come mow your yard."  She told me once that more than a handful of guys showed up to mow her yard.  My response to her....."and none of those guys have a shot at the pussy."

Her response?

"Nope."

You know why?  Because when you do that shit, you're a god damn chump.  You are owned.  Women don't want chumps, they want champs.  And champs are a challenge.  They are men that have enough self respect not to salivate over them, or throw themselves helplessly into the beta male fray just hoping for a taste of the sweet nectar they dream of and premature ejaculate to every night.  Women want, what they cannot have.  Women don't want yard mowers.

The guys that do this, that throw themselves at women like this, are the enablers of women who have over inflated opinions of themselves and become first class bitches.  Yes, I blame you beta and omega males for this shit.  Why?  Because it doesn't happen if all eleventy billion of you don't tell her how hot she is 45,000 times!  You don't think she's been told she's hot before?  I mean, you think she's going "WOW, I didn't know!"

NO!  She's aware!  She's got big tittays and a big round ass.  She wears dental floss for a bathing suit in a 35 degree photo shoot.  You telling her she's hot, and her "liking" it, does not mean she wants your dick.  I know, world crushed.  Deal with it.

Stop doing this god damn shit and get your sack back.  Have some self respect and stop groveling at the feet of unworthy women.  Pay more attention to that chic who spent the last 6 years cultivating something awesome about herself, like an education or working at the humane society.  Give that attention to the woman that can sit down and have an intelligent conversation with you, and can talk about something more than her god damn Brazilian hair treatment or designer nails.  Leave those shallow bitches to the guys with faux hawks, spray on tans, and affliction shirts.  Those aren't men, those are brainless douchers posting as men because they physically possess male parts.

I love a hot woman just as much as the next guy.  The difference is, I don't throw away my manhood just to tell her something she already knows.  Don't be another sausage fest guy.  Separate yourself from that pack and be something better.  You'll be rewarded for it.  I guarantee it.

And speaking of Facebook, here is the LRB page.  You can tell me I'm hot.  



This is Monday however, so I hope you get blasted with 1,000 MPH nerf footballs at some point in the day.
GeT SuM!!!!