Figured I’d make more of a miscellaneous thread to direct some traffic away from the Flame Free Confession Thread II (thereby leaving it open for — surprise surprise! — confessions). Banter and just about anything else is welcome here. Have at it.
I’ll start us off:
I wonder what the deadlift world record would be if top-down deadlifts were allowed for max singles.
I also wonder what the squat world record would be if everyone had to do below parallel pin squats in competition.
Bump.
These aren’t lifting related at all.
1). Do other people check out people as much as I do?
I don’t mean in a creepy way (yes I do), but like when I see a guy, I immediately check out his calves. Bigger than mine? Yes, 95% of the time. Dang. OK, well what’s the situation with the glutes? Pancake ass or some solid glutes? Hm, looks like somewhere in the middle. Maybe he just squats like once a week and does little hamstring work. OK well what about his arms? Similar to calves, my arms are small, but if I bend my elbows and cock my wrist a certain way, I can make my forearms look decent. Oh shoot, his look bigger than mine when held limp at his side? No problem, I’m probably much more fun to hang out with, I think as I walk away defeated.
Same with girls too - I don’t even check them out like “Damn look at that ass” I’m just like…looking at them. I look at people’s faces, clothes, hair. I don’t know, I just like to observe people.
2). If people could tell when they’re going to die, would they do much with it? I don’t know what I’d do. On one hand, I’d think I should do as much good as I can. On the other, I’d be like fuck it, Stanlet Hudson says to drive fast and leave a sexy corpse, so that’s what I’m gonna do. And really, my drive fast would not be partying, doing coke, banging girls, and living life to the fullest. It’d be driving slow, and watching The Office with my girlfriend while I eat embarrassing amounts of crap food.
But what would I do? I know I have limited time left, and I know exactly when I’m done. But what side of me would win that debate, and how would I act? I think if the world knew, you’d get about…1/5 of people to act responsibly and did the best they could since they knew the deadline. The rest would just go about their normal lives and get less responsible as it got closer.
3). I wonder how many more times in my life will I stop lifting and eating well, get more and more out of shape, and then realize I have an event in a couple weeks and get back in the gym like any progress will be made in 15 days.
4). I wonder what all you people on T-Nation are like in real life, and how many of you I’d like. There’s a couple that I get the impression are kinda dicks, but for the most part you all seem like you’d be cool to hang out with for a while. Maybe grab dinner. I just gotta make sure to pick the guys who lift hard but still are willing to eat…not those losers who care about their health and bodyfat percentage.
You are not alone haha I’m always ‘measuring up’ other dudes, not for violent purposes, solely developmentally. I had a conversation with a gal that has an excellent physique about ‘checking’ her out, I simply told her that she had an excellent, athletic physique and that I was thoroughly impressed with the obvious hard work she had put in, we talked about the difference between getting ‘checked out’ and someone simply looking and appreciating, it was a good conversation, and she reassured my I wasn’t overly creepy (win) haha
Wouldn’t ever want to know.
I have been wondering something similar, I wonder when the last time I walk into a gym to pick up a barbell will be…kind of like the quote, “At one point you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time, and none of you knew it.”
Agreed, online personalities and real world personalities can be worlds apart, but a good portion of the folks on here seem like guys and gals you could sit down, eat some wings and have a beer with.
Something I’ve always wondered:
What (strength wise) will I consider enough? What numbers, stats, or accomplishments will make me go, “Alright, I’ve done what I wanted and done it for long enough, I think I’m done now.”
Some stuff I have wondered about lately:
How many people are truly hindered in life by circumstances outside of their control vs how many are unwilling to do the hard work necessary to bust out of crappy circumstances? My wife was on state welfare for her and my step-son a little while after separating from an abusive ex-husband and she hated every minute of it even though she actually did need it. She busted her butt to get off the system, but in the town she is from (Rockford, IL) there are many people happy to scam the system and live off the government teat. When my wife and I first got together, I knew of people on food stamps who ate better than we did (I am talking steak and lobster at least twice a week). I know there are truly some situations that are almost inescapable, but I would argue that 90% of folks can overcome bad situations is they are willing to work hard enough.
Who would I be if I ignored what everyone else thought about me? This may be a “who am I really?” type question and is something I have been striving toward lately.
If we got rid of cable television, how many more people would find something active to do? Any hobby would suffice: woodworking, lifting, quilting, stamp collecting, other sports etc…just anything to get the mind and/or body moving.
How come I meet so few people who have read classic literature anymore? Everyone is either reading self-help non-sense or crappy fiction written for teenagers instead of adults (hunger games, divergent, magic of tidying up or whatever it’s called). I have gained so much from reading Hemingway, Conrad, Steinbeck, Kipling and more.
This last one needs a caveat that I am not trying to start an argument that belongs in PWI - how can people truly believe the earth is flat? I have almost had an anyuerism trying to figure this one out.
I love this thread already, thanks for contributing. This is also a shout-out to everyone who is contributing here. Thanks!
Always, no idea. But something I’ve thought about recently is what am I missing out on as a result of a language barrier.
The idea stems from me reading a book that was written in my native tongue which interleaves the decline of online piracy, to the rise of Spotify, to how large arenas and stadiums undercut a local culture scene to invite headline artists from other places with print-on demand autogenerated books on Amazon. Just a cornucopia of current time digital and social history, really. And this is not available to read in any other language. The corollary of, “wow, people are really missing out because they can’t read this” is then to me “what is it I can’t read or otherwise consume that would be deeply enriching because I do not understand/read language X?”.
it’s not worth it
drop a tab and drive fast 
you’d feel like dave tate after his infamous 13000 calorie cheat meal
you know that feeling you had before you existed? yeah, that’s death for you. not sure why people are so scared of it. 
disclaimer so @Frank_C doesn’t arrest me: don’t do #2 
People who do that tend to take care of themselves. 
How is it that there is soooo much porn and tuna?
I can’t get my head around it. Whether it be looking at a sea of pornhub thumbnails knowing there are millions more thumbnails (and tens of thousands more websites) that I don’t see or looking at the cans of tuna at the store and knowing there are probably 4x times that amount in the back and that the 5 other stores within my small radius all have similar amounts of tuna.
How do I optimise my training and nutrition?
How would you “self perscribe” TRT as a 22yr old
Thanks for giving me a chance to say this without getting involved in that thread.
That’s called running a cycle!
Good thread topic.
When I was a small child listening to Thriller on vinyl, I always wondered… What happened to Michael Jackson’s other glove? One of the kids at my daycare said that he threw it into the clouds, but that answer has never satisfied me. This is one of my very earliest clear memories for some reason. I still wonder what he did with that glove, but in a much different way than I did when I was 3 or 4.
I thought trt required a doc prescription
It does. TRT is doctor-prescribed testosterone. I didn’t read that thread but you could, in theory, take the optimal medicinal amount of testosterone without a prescription. I have no idea how you’d go about doing this, but it is possible in theory.
In practice, you’d just be taking steroids. AKA “running a cycle”. Testosterone is the primary chemical we’re talking about when we say “steroids”. Running a testosterone cycle is taking the same stuff the doc gives you, but you get to decide how much to take.
I’m just speaking from theory here, not practice. I only use creatine and alcohol.
Why not weed and adderal;)
Weed is legal where I live but it makes me lazy and hungry. It’s also ridiculously potent. Once in a blue moon I’ll partake.
I did adderal back in college and it was great. Too great. Didn’t want it to become habit.
Plenty of reasons not to use alcohol, but those are all easily explained away.
enlighten me. I’ve only heard of the negatives of alcohol (I’m also allergic, but still curious)
It was a joke. Alcohol is very bad for you.