T3hPwnisher's Log

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
I appreciate all the positive feedback folks. It’s funny: I was actually a bit iffy about publishing that post, simply because nutrition isn’t a thing a tend to write about a lot. I’m glad that people were able to enjoy my own perspective on the process.
[/quote]

I thought it was exciting and refreshing to see that you can achieve incredible results simply by doing the basics right, and that you don’t have to be breaking down macros massively or worrying too much about nutrient partitioning or whatever else tries to take the place of common sense.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
LondonBoxer: I think we all fall for the trap at one point in believing that we can just eat ourselves bigger and stronger. It’s one of those lessons that started out with noble intentions (trying to get underweight trainees to eat more so that they could actually see some growth) and spiraled out of control by being parroted by novices, clueless and gurus. I find that, these days, whenever I look back on the advice of old Ironheads, I have to remember that the ever presented caveat that went unmentioned (because it was simply assumed) was that, along with everything else, you were training your ass off. [/quote]

Exactly. When you actually stop and reflect, the idea of a ‘surplus’ of calories is absured. What you are essenially being told is ‘eat more than you need to achieve your goals’. That’s terrible advice, unless your goal is to get fat, or hit a particular weight for competition.

The whole ‘just eat’ thing is madness in my view, but is probably a feature of the internet - it’s really easy to tell someone they aren’t getting bigger because they aren’t eating enough, it’s actually pretty hard to quantify the advice ‘train more intensely’, even though I’m sure for 95% of trainees (myself included for much of my early lifting career) that is the answer. You had a great post on that too with regards to the whole beginner programming thing. Sadly it came about a year too late for me, as I finally realised that not being able to hit the total number of reps I required in the number of sets prescribed was actually a good thing, as I had reached the point where I could finally start getting stronger.

dagill2:I appreciate that man. I was telling my wife the other day how bad I feel about losing fat without doing anything super complicate. It was like I was doing it wrong or something.

Now, I believe that to get down to bodybuilder levels of leaness, some more advanced stuff needs to get done, but I find a lot of people underestimate the power of eating well, eating less, and eating the same thing every day.


LondonBoxer: It’s more of a positive that my post was 1 year too late versus being timely, as at least it means you got a year of solid training in rather than stalling until I wrote about it, haha. You’re absolutely right too: nutrition is an easier variable to quantify. We witness so many threads in the beginner forum where people are shouting out rep/set protocols, nutritional approaches, training plans, etc, and most times we discover the trainee simply isn’t pushing themselves in training.

Thought I’d join the crowd in praise of your nutrition rant as well, why’s it take so much knowledge to learn that ‘‘simpler is better’’ or better yet paying attention to your own body is better. The older I get, and the more I listen to my own body, and then the simpler things become ‘’ genius ‘’ :slight_smile:

Now I just have to shake this ab addiction I seemed to have picked up over the summer. Never thought I could get afflicted by this nonsense, but I’m watching hard earned muscle disappear, right along with hard earned strength. All to satisfy some burning desire to see myself with an actual full ‘’ six pack ‘’ I will say it’s a lot harder journey than I would have believed. Pretty much there, just want the photo, then back to gaining.

Last thing Bro well I’m at it, as far as the rev-hyper goes, maybe you could post a vid to show your style. Seems everyone has different idea’s. I personally like to let the weight pull me far under, so I can actually see my feet below my face, then swing back to erect position, just shy of full hyper ext., and get a rhythm going for 20-30 reps. I know what feels right to me, and that’s what’s important, but I only really respect a few of author’s on the net, and Bruno - Contreras - Robertson for example all recommend totally different methods, not to mention Big Louie himself who designed the machine. I’ve been coaching for 25yrs as well and have my own opinions, but wouldn’t mind herein what you have to say on the subject. As far as strength athletes, middle aged factory workers, and women just trying to build a bigger butt. I know what works for me, just worried about clients. Thanks dude Later !

Oh it will be 10 days until I can get back to you, got something to take care of :slight_smile:

Great blog man! You know the last week I was thinking the same thing. I realized I’m eating well in terms of quality foods, but I noticed my fat level increase in past 2 weeks. I think its because of the amount of carbs I’m taking in. Every meal is meat, veggies, carbs (potatoes/rice).

Could you tell me what you eat on a given day? I don’t want to calorie count, but I’m just trying to gauge how I can eat “enough” just eating meat and veggies.

Any input would be appreciated brotha!

[quote]isdatnutty wrote:
Great blog man! You know the last week I was thinking the same thing. I realized I’m eating well in terms of quality foods, but I noticed my fat level increase in past 2 weeks. I think its because of the amount of carbs I’m taking in. Every meal is meat, veggies, carbs (potatoes/rice).

Could you tell me what you eat on a given day? I don’t want to calorie count, but I’m just trying to gauge how I can eat “enough” just eating meat and veggies.

Any input would be appreciated brotha![/quote]

I posted this thread in BSL that contained my diet up until recently

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_bigger_stronger_leaner/strongman_fatloss_3_month_journey_down_to_84_bodyfat

Breakdown of a training day was

As I’m now prepping for a strongman contest and willing to put on a little weight, the biggest change is that I now eat 1 cup of fat free greek yogurt mixed with a serving of protein powder at 0900 and eat the salad at 1000. Everything else stays about the same.

And, on non-training days, I don’t eat the 0500 meal.

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
Thought I’d join the crowd in praise of your nutrition rant as well, why’s it take so much knowledge to learn that ‘‘simpler is better’’ or better yet paying attention to your own body is better. The older I get, and the more I listen to my own body, and then the simpler things become ‘’ genius ‘’ :slight_smile:

Now I just have to shake this ab addiction I seemed to have picked up over the summer. Never thought I could get afflicted by this nonsense, but I’m watching hard earned muscle disappear, right along with hard earned strength. All to satisfy some burning desire to see myself with an actual full ‘’ six pack ‘’ I will say it’s a lot harder journey than I would have believed. Pretty much there, just want the photo, then back to gaining.

Last thing Bro well I’m at it, as far as the rev-hyper goes, maybe you could post a vid to show your style. Seems everyone has different idea’s. I personally like to let the weight pull me far under, so I can actually see my feet below my face, then swing back to erect position, just shy of full hyper ext., and get a rhythm going for 20-30 reps. I know what feels right to me, and that’s what’s important, but I only really respect a few of author’s on the net, and Bruno - Contreras - Robertson for example all recommend totally different methods, not to mention Big Louie himself who designed the machine. I’ve been coaching for 25yrs as well and have my own opinions, but wouldn’t mind herein what you have to say on the subject. As far as strength athletes, middle aged factory workers, and women just trying to build a bigger butt. I know what works for me, just worried about clients. Thanks dude Later !

Oh it will be 10 days until I can get back to you, got something to take care of :slight_smile:
[/quote]

Now that I got the bodyfat measured, it’s hard to fight the urge to just balloon back up, but I’m with you: I’m enjoying having abs again. Thanks for the comment on the blog, you and I definitely share the same mentality when it comes to this stuff.

As for the reverse hypers, I use your approach as well. They say that the eccentric of the reverse hyper is where the restorative qualities lie, and allowing the weight to really pull your legs forward does a great job getting the back loose and healthy. I use a good amount of swing to get the weight moving for heavy stuff, and for the timed reps, I try to keep more control and really focus on contracting the glutes at the top.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]isdatnutty wrote:
Great blog man! You know the last week I was thinking the same thing. I realized I’m eating well in terms of quality foods, but I noticed my fat level increase in past 2 weeks. I think its because of the amount of carbs I’m taking in. Every meal is meat, veggies, carbs (potatoes/rice).

Could you tell me what you eat on a given day? I don’t want to calorie count, but I’m just trying to gauge how I can eat “enough” just eating meat and veggies.

Any input would be appreciated brotha![/quote]

I posted this thread in BSL that contained my diet up until recently

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_bigger_stronger_leaner/strongman_fatloss_3_month_journey_down_to_84_bodyfat

Breakdown of a training day was

As I’m now prepping for a strongman contest and willing to put on a little weight, the biggest change is that I now eat 1 cup of fat free greek yogurt mixed with a serving of protein powder at 0900 and eat the salad at 1000. Everything else stays about the same.

And, on non-training days, I don’t eat the 0500 meal.[/quote]

Thanks man! Damn I’m eating WAY more than you and I weight 40lbs less haha! No wonder I’m gaining fat lol. Oh well now I know. But I did have another question for you.

How the hell do you drink a gallon of water in 1 hour!?!? You must piss for 5 min straight when you are done with that haha!

Like anything else in training, you build up eventually. I actually don’t feel the need to pee for quite a while after drinking the gallon, and when I do it’s nothing dramatic. It’s something my body has gotten used to.

What’s even more noteworthy is that, after the gallon of water, I’m still drinking stuff through out the day. Tons of diet soda, crystal lite, diet Snapple, etc. Just got a good thirst going.

In regards to food total, you’ll have to keep in mind that the diet I posted was a diet designed to lose fat. If my goal was purely performance based, I’d be pushing the calories a bit more, even moreso than just the added greek yogurt. Right now, I’m trying to find the balance between leaness and performance.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

LondonBoxer: It’s more of a positive that my post was 1 year too late versus being timely, as at least it means you got a year of solid training in rather than stalling until I wrote about it, haha. You’re absolutely right too: nutrition is an easier variable to quantify. We witness so many threads in the beginner forum where people are shouting out rep/set protocols, nutritional approaches, training plans, etc, and most times we discover the trainee simply isn’t pushing themselves in training.[/quote]

Definitely. I’m still amazed at how easily I can be pushing 3000 calories just eating meat, veg, eggs and cheese over the course of 3 meals. To think I was probably eating upwards of a pound and a half of rice on top of that each day for months on end, I’m actually amazed that I still just about had abs. Good luck with your competition mate. I’ve just found your youtube channel, so am going to work my way through some of the videos. Cheers again for putting out good material.

Thanks man!


Reverse hyper 5 plates
3x12

Standing ab wheel
2x8
1x7

Notes: Worked up to my last warm-ups on SSB squats and car deadlift simulator, but wasn’t able to break the weights when it got to working territory. The strength was there, but my back tweak is preventing me from getting all systems firing. Probably a convenient way to deload. Woke up at 192.6.

EDIT: Oh yeah, few other things I had running around in my mind.

Point 1: I should make it a policy that, if I’m not able to hit a decent squat for the day, I spend the rest of the session doing GHRs, Reverse hypers and ab work. I could still get in some good volume doing that, hit all the parts, and not waste time setting up the car deadlift just to have that not work too. Usually, if I can’t do the squat, I also can’t hit the deadlift.

Point 2: Thinking about progressing with future squat programming as such.
-ROM progression still.
-Alternate movements each week.
–Week A: SSB squats against chains
–Week B: Buffalo bar squat
—Buffalo bar squat will rotate between straight weight and against bands (possibly even reverse bands)
-Stay at the same height for Week A and Week B before increasing ROM.

I just seem to be spinning my wheels on the squat workouts, and though they’re helping my strongman work, I feel like I could still stand to progress on the movement itself. I think alternating movements will prevent stagnation and allow me to strengthen weak areas.

Additionally, on weeks when I squat heavy with the SSB, I’ll perform my stupid squat workout with the buffalo bar, and vise versa.

Axle Push Press from rack
4x238

Axle strict press from rack
7x148

Notes: The 238 was moving real smooth, but on rep 3 I felt a light burning in my right tricep and on the 4th rep it went into full on “on fire” mode. Did the back off strict set just to test it out, and it seems ok. I think it was ultimately just the elbow cuff sitting funny on the tricep and pulling it in a weird direction, but this close to the contest I don’t mind playing it safe. I’m thinking I may need to bring some strict pressing back into my rotation anyway.

Dips
BWx10
25x10
50x10
75x10

Dropset
100x7
75x2
50x2
25x3
BWx3

Notes: I had at least an 8th on the 100 set, but the left dip bar buckled on the eccentric when I went for it, and fighting for it seemed like a bad idea. Right clavicle was a little pissed off from this, but I think I can sort that out. Ultimately I’m pretty pleased with this approach, and I think my execution is sound. I might rest a little on the drop set in the future, as this was done with only enough rest to switch out weights which, with a loading pin, goes by real fast. Also like the heavier warm-up set/pre-exhaust approach as a way to build up some volume.

D-ring lat pulldown/kelso shrug combo
4x10/5 of 140
1x20/5 of 90

Notes: Hit the sets of 140 supersetted with the warm-ups on dips, hit the set of 20 after the big drop set. Also did a bunch of band pull aparts today, but hard to log them.

DB curl dropset
10x40lb (Hammercurl)
10x35 (Curl)
10x30 (HC)
10x25 (C)
10x20 (HC)
10x15 (C)
10x10 (HC)

Notes: Was feeling the right tricep again slightly on these, but it seemed to go away with time. Still a big fan of this approach.

General notes: Woke up at 191.6. Seemed to have shed the water I picked up over the weekend. Back is just about 100%. Crazy how beat up I’m getting. Plan to hit some band triceps at lunch and some axle cleans after work today to round out this workout.

PM WORKOUT

Axle clean and press (clean each rep) 188
1x8

Notes: Was originally going to just do cleans, but then I remembered I was stupid and wanted to train wrong. Clavicle was a little tender, but tricep held up fine. Great speed and leg drive, conditioning might be the only x-factor on this, and with trading off with a partner, I think we’ll be good.

Average band pushdowns
2x20
2x10

Farmer’s walks 185 per hand
4x80’

Notes: On the 3rd trip, tried to get steps out of the pick up and ended up re-tweaking my glute/back. 4th trip was slow. Plan was to hit this in the early AM, take an hour break and then hit up my deadlift training, but wasn’t able to get through my warm-ups.

Reverse hyper 25 per side
3:00

Notes: This makes the pain go away, so I’m going to do it everyday. Need to get more aggressive with the rehab, and considering I have a reverse hyper in my garage, it’s stupid that I’m not using it more. I really dig the “Do something everyday” training idea.

General notes: Woke up at 190.8. Ate more carbs this morning, so hopefully that’ll help.

Ended the day with 2 more sessions of reverse hyper for 3 minutes a pop. Seems to be helping. Tomorrow, I plan to do an odds and ends sort of workout in the morning just to get blood flushed and get excited about training again.

Yo punisher, I just read your article “YOUR GYM IS MAKING YOU WEAK” and it’s a damn fine piece of writing if you ask me. Anyways, I was wondering about your last sentence, "Unless you do strongman, in which case, none of the equipment is regulated, nothing is standard, everything is broken, and you just need to get stronger. ". Is that why strongman attracts you more than the other strength sports (powerlifting/weightlifting/etc)? Just wanted to understand your perspective on things.

[quote]Benanything wrote:
Yo punisher, I just read your article “YOUR GYM IS MAKING YOU WEAK” and it’s a damn fine piece of writing if you ask me. Anyways, I was wondering about your last sentence, "Unless you do strongman, in which case, none of the equipment is regulated, nothing is standard, everything is broken, and you just need to get stronger. ". Is that why strongman attracts you more than the other strength sports (powerlifting/weightlifting/etc)? Just wanted to understand your perspective on things.[/quote]

Thanks for reading man. That last line was a bit of a throw away joke, but a lot of truth is said in jest. One of my favorite strongman stories is from my second contest. We had a press medley with a dumbbell press in it. The guy ahead of me kept dropping the bell before lockout, and eventually he bent it so that the handle was a big “U”. The promoter looked at the bell, looked at me and said “Good luck: welcome to strongman”. It’s pretty much how it is, haha.

In terms of what attracts me to strongman, there are a few factors at play.

-I came from powerlifting originally. Before moving to California in 2013, I had spent the previous 5 years in North Dakota. Powerlifting is a great sport in North Dakota, because it’s an indoor sport you can do year round (and we had an AWESOME group of guys), but once I got out of there I wanted to be outside as much as possible, and strongman afforded me that avenue.

-I enjoy competing against people rather than numbers. Back in the day, powerlifting meets were where the best competed against the best, and whoever had the best total/coefficient wins. These days, with so many federations and the internet, it’s rare that’s the case. I was lucky in North Dakota that there was 1 guy that was really strong in my weight class, but you can often show up to a meet and be the only person in your weight class/division, instead just competing against a set of numbers someone set halfway across the country a few months ago. At a strongman contest, I regularly compete against anywhere from 7-30 people, and it really pushes me to give it my all.

-I like the various types of strength that strongman requires. I came into my first show with some strong powerlifting numbers for a 181er, and took 4th out of 9. I was most likely the strongest person in my weight class statically, but couldn’t keep up with the speed and strength of those that had bested me. The sport pushes me in directions that I wouldn’t go in on my own accord, and makes me stronger overall.

-I really dig how strongman is very results oriented. As long as you get the weight from A to B, you get points. The idea of being judged by HOW I lifted the weight just seems off to me.

-I’m just a brute. I’ve got no finesse whatsoever, so weightlifting just plain ain’t happening without years of coaching, and I’m too damn old for that. It also just never really appealed to me.

Now, I will say that I enjoyed TRAINING for powerlifting more than strongman. It’s cool only focusing on 3 lifts and then basically doing a bunch of bodybuilding afterwards. But the competition of strongman pushes me to train harder than powerlifting did.

Long reply, haha, but hopefully that shines some light on the issue.


AM WORKOUT

Reverse hyper 50lbs
3:00

Gigantic DB overhead press/lat pulldown circuit

DB press
10x10
10x20
10x25
10x30
10x35
10x40
10x45
10x50
10x45
10x40
10x35
10x30
10x25
10x20
10x15
10x10
40x10

In between all sets

D-ring lat pulldown 90lbs
1x10

Notes: No rest for the whole thing, just one big circuit. Took about 20 minutes total. Got a pretty decent shoulder pump, 200 reps total, but not quite as challenging as I thought it would be. If I ever do it again, I’ll throw on some fat gripz, and maybe hit reps in the 15-20 range.

Axle Poundstone Curls
1x100

Notes: Always wanted to try these. Good challenge, got a decent pump in the arms. May throw some weight on it and work these into my OHP day.

Band pull aparts
1x50

PM Workout

Reverse hyper 50
3:00

Notes: Feeling more limber, rehab is working, but still too broken to squat. Worked up to 320 for a single in warm-ups, but could only walk out 410. Slowly but surely.

General notes: Woke up at 191.2 this morning. Cheat meal was moved to dinner instead of lunch due to wife running half marathon in the morning. Went to Carl’s Jr and had a double western bacon cheeseburger, a lettuce wrapped 1/3lb thickburger, and an order of criss cut fries.

Non-training day: injury update

Woke up this morning and couldn’t walk. Right glute was in too much pain. I actually had gotten out of bed in the first place because my dog jumped off the bed, and the punk used my immobility as an opportunity to pee on my bathroom door. After a few minutes of hobbling things started to loosen up slightly and I was able to crotch down to the floor with a lot of theatrics. Took a long shower, put a lot of heat on it, used some icy hot, rolled it out with a rolling pin, and I had all my basic mobility back. Still a good deal of pain.

Then, after breakfast, I did something I’ve never done before: I took naprosyn. I’ve always been a ibuprofen guy, and consequently never noticed it working, but after about a half hour I was completely pain free. I had “awareness” that I was injured, but no pain. I don’t know if this is entirely the naprosyn or if the aggressive rehab is paying off, but as a result I actually took today off from the rehab schedule because I didn’t want to run the risk of pushing my injured part without being able to feel any warning pain. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Morning weight was 191.8. Great showing after a cheat meal dinner. I expect my weight to be up slightly more tomorrow. Playing a little looser with the diet in terms of food quantity, but quality has remained the same. Eating a lot of greek yogurt. Additionally, looks like the season is over for wild blueberries, so I’m now eating a blackberry/blueberry mixture for my breakfasts.

EDIT: Also, whenever I get injured my mind just floods with training ideas (it’s partially why I think injuries are so valuable) and I’ve got yet another squat training idea I may implement.

Still doing alternate weeks of SSB/Buffalo Bar, but instead of ROM progression the buffalo bar, going to stick with full ROM squats, trying to set a weight or rep PR. Working in a higher rep range than the SSB, 10-15. Got the idea from Matt Kroc’s training when he was still powerlifting. He’d alternate suited squats for low reps with high rep olympic squats.

Swiss bar floor press 275
12 reps

Notes: 2 rep PR from last time. The messed up glute was actually an asset here, as it meant absolutely zero chance of using leg drive. Seems like the program is working.

Shoulder circuit
3 rounds

Close grip swiss bar bench 245
14 reps

Notes: 2 rep PR. Going to increase the weight next time.

D ring lat pulldown 180
16 reps

Notes: Going full on DC mode with this workout, and did the rest pausing and everything. Glute just makes me not want to do chins. Also had to cut out rows because of it.

Band pull aparts
100

Assisted GHRs
1x10

General notes: Woke up at 190.2. Once again, seems I don’t have a good ability to estimate the effects of nutritional variance. Actually saw a 1 and an 8 as the first two numbers for a second. Theory is that the lack of hard workouts is diminishing my appetite, and that I’ve got something of a nutritional guilt complex over eating bigger if I’m not training hard. Need to knock that out for now.

Still trying to figure out what’s going on injurywise. Back in pain this morning, wondering if the memory foam mattress is detrimental to recovery. As far as WHAT the injury is, still pretty clueless. I can contract the glute without issue, the pain is constant but can be increased with movement, and I noticed that the worse of it was when I held a weight in the hand of the opposite side and walked. Seems to be something involved with lateral movement and counter balance. May be taking the next 2 weeks off before the contest in terms of heavy lower body work and just stick with rehab. Might be a nice deload and a good way to transition into some different programming.

Trying your technique for lots of low weight pump work daily to fix minor injuries. Absolute genius, I will be stealing that from now on. Thank you