Memorial Day Training

First and foremost I want to thank all the troops past and present who made this day, and all the days before and after it, possible.  Who knows where this country would be if it weren't for the gumption, gusto, and get-shit-done attitude of our service men and women from the Revolutionary War to our present day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We as individuals may or may not agree with the conflict itself but the support of our troops in said conflict should come without question.  To sacrifice youth, family, and sometimes lives is something that we should not take for granted.  So thank you service men and women.  Keep kicking ass.

Squat: 425x3x3, 345x10

Bench: 250x5x3

Skull Crushers: 3x10
w/
Curls: 3x10

Band Pull Aparts: 3x20
w/
Pushups: 3x15

Song of the Day:

“Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.” -General George S. Patton

Memorial Day Weekend Is Here!

I trained today and yesterday.  Nothing too exciting happened.  Today was light snatches, high rep squats, and moderate to heavy btnpp.  I also attempted to run a bit and it went ok.  I did see a deer in the back parking lot at work while doing it which was probably the highlight of that little adventure.

Anywho, this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend in case you hadn't heard.  I'll be celebrating the start of summer by drinking some beers, seeing some friends in Chicago, and grilling dead animals over an open flame.  As always, many thanks go out to all of our service men and women, past and present who make it all possible.  For a fun way to learn about America's awesome service men and women I would suggest giving http://www.badassoftheweek.com/ a look see.  Here's on to start with.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

I'd also encourage you to listen to the song below.  The lyrics are on the youtube page.

Song of the Day:

"Those things which are precious are saved only by sacrifice." -David Kenyon Webster

Tuesday, Day 3 Post Rapture

Clean: 284x1, 308x 3 huge embarrassing failures

Overhead Press: 135x5, 155x5, 165x5, 175x5, 185x3, 135x8

Clean Pulls: 3x5

Pendlay Rows: 3x8

Shrugs: 4x15
w/
Curls: 3x8

Very blah session.  Things were OK, nothing great.  Cleans remain an enigma.  I think squats from yesterday affected my pull from the floor.  So it goes.

Now on to this Rapture business.  May 21 came and went without a hitch, except for a small volcano eruption in Iceland.  But it's Iceland, they don't count.  Harold Camping, the head honcho at Family Radio, and his misguided band of believers have been saying for months that the Rapture would come on May 21 at 6 pm and take 200 million pious souls to heaven.  The rest of us would have five months of agony to endure before the Earth was consumed by a massive fireball on October 21.  Well, that didn't happen.  Now Camping is claiming that the REAL Rapture will happen on October 21.  That this was like a spiritual Rapture to test who was a believer and who was not.  Whatever.  The real issue I have is that there were people that sold everything they owned, maxed out credit cards, and drove cross country expecting this to happen.  Well guess who's got a whole bunch of egg on their face now?  Now these people are destitute because some loony 89 year-old spewed a bunch of nonsense on the radio.  In my opinion, serves 'em right.  If you actually are hoping for the end of the world I think you are fucking insane.  I try as best as I can to be tolerant of people's beliefs, but when something flies in the face of reason I call bullshit.  If I end up in an eternal hell so be it.  If the emperor has no clothes I'll bite the bullet and say so.  Besides, this is the real reason the Rapture didn't and won't ever happen.

Thank you "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

I'll snap that to a Slim Jim.  OH YEEEAAAHHHH!

Song of the Day:


"The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason." -Benjamin Franklin

People I Want To Drink With: Lemmy Kilmister

Lemmy Kilmister was not "born" like you or I.  On Christmas Eve in 1945 he sprang forth from a petri dish concoction of Jack Daniel's Bourbon, gunpowder, a few of Edward Teach's half-smoked cigars, and the pubic hair of some of Britain's finest "Lady's of the Night."  In case you hate awesome music Lemmy Kilmister is the lead vocalist and bassist of Motorhead, a band that rocks so hard that when they play ears bleed, faces melt, chicks faint, tides change, and God himself listens in.

You're going to tell me this band ain't bad ass?  Forget about it.

Lemmy's main inspiration to start playing music came at an early age when he saw classmates bring guitars to school and get chicks in the process.  He then brought his mother's guitar to class even though he didn't know how to play and a sex legend was born, "In those days having a guitar was enough...that was enough."  Lemmy is such a prodigious dancer of the horizontal mambo that he was featured at number 8 in Maxim's top ten "Living Sex Legends" list.  They estimated he wined, dined, and sixty-nined his way into around 1,200 women's hearts.

In addition to his taste for women Lemmy also has an insatiable appetite for drugs and booze.  In the Channel 4 documentary "Motorhead: Live Fast Die Old" Lemmy revealed that he drinks and bottle of JD each day and has done so since he was 30.  That is fucking amazing to me since I've only done that once and can't be 100% certain that I even did since I blacked out half way through.  And it was Segram's because I was short on cash at the time.  I also felt like sack of steamrolled hog anuses for a few days afterwards.  On top of the Jack and Coke's Lemmy loves to do amphetamines.  His reasoning for taking them is probably the best I've ever heard.

I first got into speed because it was a utilitarian drug and kept you awake when you needed to be awake, when otherwise you'd just be flat out on your back. If you drive to Glasgow for nine hours in the back of a sweaty truck you don't really feel like going onstage feeling all bright and breezy... It's the only drug I've found that I can get on with, and I've tried them all — except smack and morphine: I've never fixed anything.

The womanizing, binge drinking, and drug use is all well and good.  But what I like the most about Lemmy, besides his honest, straight forward, devil-may-care attitude to the world is his balls-out pursuit of awesome to the max facial hair.  When professional wrestler Triple H adopts your signature facial hair style you're no longer just a bad ass.  You are now so fucking rad you could probably make chicks pregnant just by winking at them.

Boom.  Preggers.

So if you like to rock and roll I would implore you to check out Motorhead.  Saxon even likes them.  I was listening to their album Ace of Spades while he was sleeping on the couch and he started convulsing to the music.  Don't worry, he's fine.  Saxon's just a dog that loves him some rock.  Here's a little taste.



Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy
Motorhead: Live Fast Die Old

Monday

Snatch: up to 218x1, 186x3

Squat: 315x5, 365x5, 405x5, 425x5, 445x5

Fat Bar Bench: 185x5, 225x5, 245x5, 260x5

Stone and Keg Picks

Pretty damn good session today.  Snatches are feeling better after working out some knots in my upper back.  The knots were affecting my shoulder mobility to a negative degree.  I kept trying to catch the bar out in front of me instead of just a bit behind and over my center of mass.  Working the knots allows me to get my arms back much easier.  Squats felt pretty decent.  The last set is ten pounds off from my previous 5 rep max.  Bench was ok.  Didn't feel like anything special.  The squats tapped me pretty good so I was feeling less than stellar.  All in all got some great work in today.

 Song of the Day:

"I will prepare and some day my chance will come." -Abraham Lincoln

Where Have You Been?

After about a week of not being able to login to Blogger I finally found the solution.  Good thing this week was a down week and I didn't really do anything of consequence.  I'll recap to the best of my memory.

Monday: Snatch, Squat, Overhead

Tuesday: Clean, Bench, Rows

Wednesday: Snatch, Squat, Overhead

Thursday: Clean, Bench, RDLs

Friday: Snatch, Squat, Overhead

See, pretty boring.  Don't worry though because I've got some fun articles in the works.  I know you've all been craving some knowledge.

In other news I signed up for Twitter.  You can follow me at @NXLevelTCD.  As you can see I did it through work which is fine because I come up with some of my finest quips while at the gym.  Time to share them with the world.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Tomorrow the Rapture is supposed to happen at 6pm.  What are you all planning?  Repenting?  Going on as normal?  Cocaine fueled weekend of banging hookers?  More on this debacle later.

Song of the Day:

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." -Richard Bach

PR Friday

Sorry for the lack of a post lately.  I've been training, just too busy (lazy) to write.  Tuesday I cleaned and benched.  Wednesday I snatched, squatted, and did some DB overhead stuff.  Thursday was another clean and bench day.  Tuesday was shitty but Wednesday and Thursday I was putting up some good numbers.  On to today.

Snatch: 198x6 singles

Dead Lift: 525x1, 573x1, 603x1 (PR)

Log Press: 165x5x4

The snatches felt pretty damn good today.  No misses and I didn't struggle with any of the reps.  Definitely a solid day.  Dead lift felt a lot better than I thought it was going to coming in.  But once I got to 525 it flew up.  Went right to 573 and that flew up too.  Feeling a little reckless I threw thirty more pounds on the bar.  I was definitely a nervous Pervis in the buildup to the lift.  Once I started pulling it broke the ground pretty quick and I knew I had it before I even got it to my knees.  I put it down then pulled out the imaginary double guns and fired a celebratory shot into the air.  This may have been the most excited I've ever been for a PR.  Definitely the most animated.  There's video of it and I'll post it as soon as I can.

Song of the Day:

“If something is exceptionally well done it has embedded in it's very existence the aim of lifting the common denominator rather than catering to it.” -Edward Fischer

Monday

Snatch: up to 218x1

Squat: 315x5, 365x5, 385x5x3, 275x15

Bench: 185x5, 225x5, 255x5x3, 185x12

Pendlay Rows: 3x8

Decent session today.  I think I took a step backwards on my snatches.  The first few sets were awesome.  Went up super fast.  Once I got around 200 lbs. the wheels started to fall off.  My pulls are fine, it's my catch that stunk today.  I think I know what I'm doing wrong.  I just need to work on it.  Squats and bench felt great today.  Nothing too hard and keeping everything fast.

Song of the Day:

"The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see." -Winston Churchill

A Nation Of Eunuchs

eu-nuch noun

1.  a castrated man placed in charge of a harem or employed as a chamberlain in a palace
2. a man or boy deprived of the testes or gonads
3. one that lacks virility or power

I'm going to come right out and say it.  I hate hipsters.  I don't hate them because of the clothes they wear or the music they listen to.  I don't hate them because they major in areas of study like philosophy or studio art or creative writing.  I don't hate them because they cling to the ironically funny things in life like old school lunchboxes, thrift store t-shirts, and stupid black frame glasses.  I hate them for two other, unrelated reasons.

1. They have co-opted Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, my go to cheap beer in college.  This drove up the price and made me go even further down the food chain to Pabst Genuine Draft.  Only bad things happen when drinking that bottom of the barrel swill.
2. They are typically shallow, spineless, and in a perpetual state of pre-adulthood.

This article isn't solely about hipsters though.  This article is about the feminization of men in society.  It's about that breed of man that doesn't do anything unless they are told.  They don't stand for anything.  They float through life, never rock the boat, never release the inner animal in them.  They live their lives in a way that destroys the thing that makes them men.  And worse, they listen to the people that tell them they are wrong for being a man.  Fuck that. 

Gender equality is one of those tricky subjects where one better be careful of what they wish for.  The more the line is blurred between what roles a man and a women play the more it takes men out of their natural element.  I'm all for gender equality.  But to me it's a two-way street.  Gender equality isn't about losing what it is to be a man.  It's about one sex not being dominant over the other.  I think women that are aggressive and can put the bitch hat on in an instant but are still feminine are great.  In other words, I think women should be more like men, not the other way around.  Or, even better, accept that men and women are, and always will be, different from each other.

How has this happened?  There are a number of factors that I can see.

The Eats

Soy: You know how there are people that believe the Devil put dinosaur bones in the ground to trick us into believing in science and facts and stuff?  Well, I think he actually put soy on Earth to trick us into thinking that this cheap, easy to grow legume was good for us thereby turning us into a bunch of sad-sack pussies.  Soy contains isoflavones which are plant hormones that have similar effects of estrogen in humans.  This basically knocks a mans sex hormone production all out of whack.  It leads to things like man boobs, testicular shrinkage, weight gain, and crying into a gallon of ice cream while watching A Walk To Remember.

Xenoestrogens: These are nasty little man-made compounds.  The two most famous are DDT, an insecticide, and BPA, the thing that makes plastic unshatterable.  These compounds also behave like estrogen in the body.  They also lower testosterone.  A double whammy.  BPA is found in a lot of plastic bottles, especially the thin throw-away ones.  They can also be released into your food if you reheat things in plastic containers.

The Media

I'm probably not the best resource to comment on mass media seeing as how I consume minimal amounts of it.  But from what I've seen in the past I think I can make some fair assumptions.  Take the typical family centered sitcom.  Think about the usual character dynamics at play.  You've got the ne'er-do-well husband who provides for the family yet is usually made out to be a buffoon and is emasculated daily by the wife that usually doesn't work but still thinks she is the "head of household."  She easily plays the husband like a fiddle using the one note that she knows will always hit home: sex.  And the withholding thereof.  Whenever there is an argument out comes the sex card and bam, argument over.  Husband apologizes, loses some dignity and self-respect which he'll never get back, and the audience claps like the sheep that they are.  Ratings gold.

The same goes for advertising.  We are shown more and more ads of effeminate men.  Generally small waifs that couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag.  Not the ideal picture of virility.

You look sick, brah.

I really hope upon hope that this isn't what women really, deep down find attractive.  I think that the only reason why they go for these types of males is because they are easier to push around.  The guy in the above picture looks like the sensitive, in-touch-with-his-feminine-side, type of guy.  You got a problem with his behavior?  Sorry hunny.  I'll change.  He's not an aggressive, virile, masculine, stand-for-what-he-believes-in type of guy.  Well ladies, you've gotten what you wished for.

In his book, Manthropology, David MacCallister points to a number of studies that show that women feel that stronger more masculine men are better sexual partners and the smaller less masculine men to be better husbands and fathers.  Part of this is because women see a man's strength and virility as a liability to herself.  In other words, she's subconsciously worried he's going to cheat on her or flat out leave her.

The Society

This is the biggest and most pervasive of all.  Everything now has become PC this and go green that.  I'm really sick of it.  Kids can't play tag at recess because of its nature to single out the kid that's "it".  Little boys are put on Ritalin when they are just being inquisitive and rambunctious little boys.  Men are guilted into thinking that violence, having a few beers, going out with the guys every now and then is a horrible thing and that all men are pigs. 
When I think about the equalization of the genders in America I see it as more of a bringing down of men to elevate women.  It's gotten to the point where men can't act like men without being called a pig or a chauvinist or a misogynist.  And it's gotten to the point where boys and the "men" they eventually become are falling behind in every category.

In The Decline of Men Guy Garcia points out that girls are outperforming boys in school, not because they are brighter, but because of the way classes are taught to address their learning needs more so than boys.  Part of the problem is that boys that lose interest when their needs in schools aren't met are being lumped into special-ed programs.  Gary Giribaldi, a high school teacher, points out that their aggressive, rational nature has been redefined by liberal educators as a learning disorder.  Boys want a rational answer to things and when they don't get it they tune out.  He also points to the ever increasing PC nature of the education system and the textbooks it produces.

  In today's politically correct textbooks, Nikki Giovanni and Toni Morrison stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Mark Twain, William Faulkner and Charles Dickens, even though both women are second-raters at best. But even in their superficial aspects, the textbooks advertise publishers' intent to pander to the prevailing PC attitudes. The books feature page after page of healthy, exuberant young girls in winning portraits. Boys (white boys in particular) will more often than not be shunted to the background in photos or be absent entirely or appear sitting in wheelchairs.

Because of this falling behind in grade school men are now falling behind in higher learning as well.  Garcia points out that women outnumbered men on US university campuses by two million.  Schools like Kenyon College have started affirmative action for males due to the gap.  Women's salaries have also been on the rise while men's have remained stagnant and even declined in some industries.

How Did This Happen?

That's an easy one to answer.  We, men, let it happen.  Why did we let it happen?  Because it's easier to go along with it than to put up a fight even if we know it's wrong.  The more we are told that being a man is some lower form of life, the more we start to believe it.  There's nothing wrong with being a man.  There's nothing wrong with being a little wild now and then.  That's not to say that men should be savages.  But every once in a while we men puff out our chests, use logic instead of our emotions to guide us, shoot a rifle or two into the air, build stuff we don't need because we can, and laugh at farts.  It's who we are.  It's in our blood.

I'm not going to buy into the backwards feminist notions of "a real man is in touch with his feminine side" or "a real man isn't afraid to cry" or "a real man paints his girlfriend's dog's toenails when she tells him to."  Some guys will do anything to get laid.

Ladies, We Need Your Help

Ladies, think long and hard about what kind of man you are attracted to.  Be honest with yourself because you have the power to swing things back in the right direction.  Are you attracted to the foppish dandy pictured above?  Or do you like a guy who is strong, assertive, and gets shit done?  Do you like your guy to have zero body hair and wear guyliner?  Or do you like a few straight and curlies on the chest area to run your fingers through?  Do you want someone you can pushover and have no respect for?  Or do you want someone who will stand up for himself, tell the truth no matter what, and will work with you to get shit done.  If you answered yes to the lady boy description is it because you are truly attracted to them or because you feel it's fashionable to do so?  Again, be honest with yourself.

Yes, this is a male.

This, however, is a man.

So what I'm trying to say is that in my estimation there are two kinds of guys in the world.  There are the guys that are able-bodied enough and willing to move your couch or change a flat tire, and there are the guys who know the number to Two Men and A Truck or AAA.  Which one do you want?  And if you want the guyliner guys that's fine.  I want nothing to do with you either.

Sources:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/fight_the_tkilling_toxins

http://www.chaosandpain.com/content/soy-devil-and-not-fun-way

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_chicsuntimes-the_feminized_american.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1096200/AMANDA-PLATELL-YES--Men-let-women-turn-sissies-rediscover-masculine-side.html

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/books/item_e2dpetSthO3HZcGrWR2ZUK

Kim du Toit The Pussification of the Western Male

That's Troy. This Is Classic Troy.

Well, I've done it again.  I'm the worst at taking my own advice.  Today during my lift I tried to force a weight that wouldn't go.  Nothing bad happened other than I was angry at myself, but I wasn't staying conservative and letting the weights come.  I continuously try to dismiss the work I've already put in during the week and tell myself it won't affect me.  It does.  Training five days per week is hard when you do it right.  It sucks the hind tit when you try to stuff too much shit in and force the weights.  Lesson learned.  Moving on.

Cleans: 242x3 singles, 264x3 singles, 290x3 misses, 264x1 of the shittiest reps imaginable

Bench: 225x8x3, 185x10

Chest Supported Row: 3x10
w/
Glute Ham: 3x15

Fat Bar Kurls: 3x12
w/
Band Tricep Pushdowns: 3x20

Conditioning

Song of the Day:

"The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on.  It is never of any use to oneself." -Oscar Wilde

Thursday

Snatch: 176x2, 198x1, 223x a bunch of misses.  Almost had it a few times.  It'll go soon.

Squat: 315x3, 365x3, 405x3x3, 275x12, 225x20

Incline Press: 185x3x3

Conditioning

Everything was going well until the incline.  For whatever reason whenever I do incline I get super dizzy and lightheaded.  I almost passed out on the first set.  I dropped the incline a bit and it helped some but I just moved on after the three sets at 185.  My heart says the problem is that my traps are so huge that it pinches my jugular.  My head says that I'm holding my air in my head instead of my belly.  I'll just tell people it's from my traps.

Song of the Day:

"I don't like to think of myself
I like lifting those weights though
I like the feeling of pain
Nothing else"
-Henry Rollins

BOOYAH!!

The first six weeks of Operation Increased Swole Time are over.  If I had to rate it on a scale of 1 to awesome I'd give it a pretty good.  I've increased my mass, I've hit some big PRs, and I've stayed relatively injury free.  My weight started at around 212 pounds and I'm now at about 221.  I don't think I've gained too much fat but I know I've put on a little.  Here's a run down of some PRs I've set in the past six weeks.

1. 306 power clean (just done today)
2. 208 and 220 snatch
3. 305 fat bar bench
4. 265 axle clean and press

I'm pretty sure that's it.  There might have been more. 

Here's where I'm going to get real.  I felt awesome for the first four weeks, but the last two I felt like 30,000 smashed up assholes.  My right lateral line (perineals, IT band, and TFL) hurt constantly, my left psoas and patellar tendon has been inflamed for a few weeks now, I had little motivation to train and my perceived strength went into the shitter.  So last week I kept things light and easy and took an extra day after my Florida trip to recover.  Those pains aren't completely cleared up but they are much more manageable.  And I feel that my strength is there now that I've rested a bit and switched some things up.

Moving forward.  I'm going to cut back on my poundages and focus on speed and work in more volume.  This will hopefully keep me fresh and prevent me from over reaching like I had been doing.  In other words I'm going to let the numbers come instead of grinding them out every single session.  Now on to today.

Cleans: 242 x bunch of singles, 286x1, 306x1 (PR)

BTNPP: 155x5, 175x5, 185x5, 205x5, 225x2, 155x12

Clean Pulls: 3x8

Shrugs: 4x15
w/
Inverted Rows: 4x10

Light conditioning

Today I had plans to do some light cleans and really work on technique.  Once I fixed a few things the weight felt super light.  So I went up to 286 and that went as easy as its ever felt.  I decided to strike while the iron was hot and went to 306.  Smoked it.  I celebrated with a single, silent, arm pump.  Sometimes it works that way.

Song of the Day:

"You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough." -William Blake from Proverbs from Hell

I'm Back...And I'm Never Drinking Again

Well, maybe I'll have a few beers in a few weeks. 

I traveled down to Lakeland, FL this past weekend with Lance, Al, and Eric to visit our buddy Mike.  Mike went to school with us at Carroll and just finished up at Florida Southern.  He invited us down for his graduation party.  I'm not going to go into details about the weekend, but needless to say many, MANY shenanigans were had by all.  I'm not going to get into who fell down in two separate parking lots.  Or who got his ass whupped by Jell-O shots and passed out at the graduation party.  Or who destroyed the bathroom on the plane ride home.  Or who slept until 4 pm on Saturday.  Or who got beat up by a huge purple phallus.  Or who saw boobs at the gas station.  I'm not going to get into any of that.  It was an awesome weekend to say the least.

I deloaded last week so there was nothing to really write about.  Today started off bad.  Three days of hard drinking will take its toll.  I was determined to not let it have its way with me.  Here's how it played out.

Snatch: up to 208x1, 176x2 of the shittiest reps ever, clear my head walk around the gym x1, 176x5 solid reps

Squat: 225x5, 315x5, 365x5x3

Fat Bar Bench: 185x5, 225x5, 235x5x3, 185x10

Facepulls: 3x15

Leg Curls: 3x12

Conditioning

The snatches could have turned the whole session sour.  I had to tell myself to not let my drinking be an excuse to have a shitty lift.  Easiest way to avoid this in the future?  Don't go on three day benders.

Tomorrow I'm going to recap the first six weeks of the increased frequency experiment and talk about where I'm going to go from here.  Stay tuned.

Song of the Day:

"Two strong impulses: One
to drink long and deep,
the other,
not to sober up too soon." -Rumi from Four Quatrains