BUFFET OF INSANITY: PART II

-I am unreasonably excited about pumpkin season in a few months.  I plan to get very fat.

-I am so unsatisfied with losing fat.  It’s working well and totally unrewarding.  I want to build, not destroy.

-I think most beginner trainees would do better if they never heard of the squat, bench and deadlift.

-There is no such thing as the “big 4”, or 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 42, 108, etc.  Just stop.

-I notice that some of Starting Strength’s most vocal supporters are people who never followed the program.

-I still have no idea how to do speed/dynamic effort work.

-“Training programs” seem so weird to me now.  Why not just do what you need?

-I got a Rogue axle as part of a craigslist bundle, and though it’s super cool, I wouldn’t have paid for it compared to my pipe axle.  The pipe just plain works.

Sorry, didn't mean to excite you

-I watch shows like “Biggest Loser” and “Extreme Weightloss” with envy.  How awesome would it be to spend months with zero obligations and all you do is train hard and eat well.  How do I sign up?

-“Long arms” is what people say to me when I beat them on the deadlift…and these are the same people I beat on the press as well.

-The Home Depot bucket dumbbell was a success.  It survived a 2 month training cycle and built up my technique enough to take second place in a contest for as many reps as possible.  It also made a Rogue dumbbell feel tiny.

-The Rogue 10” log was the window maker at my last contest.  When you train with great equipment and compete with bad equipment, things go bad.  Train with bad equipment and compete with good, things go well.  Train at your worst to be at your best.

-I have not pulled a sumo deadlift since 2005…should I?

-If you ever run a strongman contest, here are 2 things you can do to make everyone happy and make back some money: porta potties and a burger burn.  The former will compete you bathrooms clean and competitors happy, and the latter will be in high demand by competitors and spectators alike.  I am always shocked when no one thinks to do this.

 
Do you REALLY want to see what these guys can do to 1 bathroom?

-This will piss off a lot of lifters but I can’t take metal (music) seriously.  It sounds like Cookie Monster singing.  Blaring it at gyms/contests just makes me giggle.

-If touch and go is easier than dead stop, why is it that I can only touch and go when I am fresh, and resort to dead top when I am fatigued?

-After a heavy medley/car deadlift/anything where you were wearing tight knee sleeves/wraps, get them off ASAP, lie on your back and start pumping your legs as soon as you can.  You need to get blood flowing again, and the sooner you do this, the faster you recover.

-There is no shame in actually looking like you lift weights.  Some muscle might actually help make one stronger too.

 
I'm just saying...

-With how long Mark Rippetoe has been around, how much he writes, ho well looked up to his is, etc etc, I still don’t know of a single lifter he has trained.  I feel like the law of averages would dictate at least ONE guy would come out of the wood work.

-I still don’t count macros or calories.  I think it’s valuable to make the leap from “lean” to “bodybuilder contest ready”, but for most people, it’s not necessary.

-I got stronger in 2 year of competing in strongman than I did in 10 years of “lifting weights”.

-Conditioning is the missing element in almost all unsuccessful programs.

-Theory on the difference between beginners and advanced trainees: advanced trainees are strong enough that 1 or 2 big movements wipe them out, so they fill the rest of their training sessions with small isolation work to still hit the muscles.  Beginners are so weak that they can have 4 big movements in a routine and still walk away, hence why isolation work is “not necessary”.  Maybe?

-There is no such thing as an intermediate lifter.

I imagine a few people just did this with their protein shakes

-“Eat big” has ruined so many trainees.  Eat WELL first, then, when you can figure that out, eat big.  Oh, this probably means you need to learn how to cook a few meals.

-Those that are adamant that you MUST train a movement to move more weight with said movement fail to understand the difference between getting stronger versus getting better.  Strongman and crossfit athletes often compete with implements they didn’t get a chance to train, and somehow their training STILL got them strong on these movements.

-I don’t know of anyone who has run Madcow or the Texas Method with results that I would want to emulate.

-My nutritional weakpoint is fast food and meat.  I can’t get enough of it, and I notice a lot of folks who are similar to me in that regard seem to naturally carry more bodyfat.  Conversely, those with sweet tooths seem to carry less bodyfat naturally.  I wonder if there is a relationship?

-I have always had better results when I did NOT time my rest periods and just went by feel.

-Want a home gym but “don’t have space”?  Get the Ironmind Squat/Dip rack and an Irongym door frame pull-up set.  You can store everything in a closet, and now you’ve got squats, dips, overhead, chins, deadlifts, and rows.  Tell me you can’t get bigger and stronger off of that.

Sorry, shouldn't mentioned this post was NSFW

-The odds that a form deviation in a lift is due to a muscle weakness is incredibly slim.  Most folks have all the strength they need, they just don’t know how to employ it.  Poor set-up is the biggest culprit here (not being configured well enough to use your muscles), but lack of body awareness can contribute as well.

-I find my greatest asset when it comes to training and building strongman equipment is my inability to recognize a “bad idea”.