I really wish I still had my pictures of when I was with my friend and I was looking at the camera with arms crossed. My upper body got so huge I started looking like a semi-fat Bronson from the movie “Bronson” with Tom Hardy. The shaved head and the mustache helped with the image. I saw myself in the mirror and got terrified of myself. lmao.
My overhead press was 115 pounds for several sets of 6 reps, and I was bent-over rowing a good 205 pounds for some same sets and reps as well. My legs were weak but they were insanely swole.
I achieved all that with high volume training. My own GVT. I know it’s not much though, and I’m sorry for that, but still. I was more muscular at that time than when I was seventeen, which says A LOT.
I am doing high volume ATM. It is something that almost always works for me. I just have never been able to get proportionally big arms. Shape has a lot to do with it. Two 16" arms can look quite different. Being lean helps a lot with proportions and definition (the direction I am going).
Nothing from the past. It’s a long story as to why I deleted them. But… I mean, I can post a picture of myself here at my current weak and fat state right now. I have no shame, really. lol. Maybe in my training log. But how about a video when I was 19? Here…
Eat to support training: don’t train to support eating. This was the biggest one for me. It completely turned everything on it’s head. I used to be the guy that would minimize ALL activity when I was gaining and then do as much as possible when I was losing weight, and I’d just get fat during a gaining phase and scrawny during a losing phase. Now I jack up the training and volume and EAT to recover from that, and when my volume is low, so are my calories.
Form doesn’t matter: technique matters a lot.
Squat depth isn’t important, outside of a meet.
And about every 3 years I learn that my eating habits aren’t nearly as good as I think they are.
EDIT: Going to throw in one more big one: the one lift to chase after if you want to be brutally strong and have a rugged looking physique is pressing an odd object from the floor. Keg or log work here. When I focused on that one task, I radically transformed how I looked and performed. Chasing after a big squat, bench and dead can be fun, but I was able to do decent on those lifts and look pretty average. Chasing after a big press from the floor was a total gamechanger.
In my teens and 20’s, it didn’t really matter. I could get into shape in two weeks time if I noticed any paunch forming. I’d just start doing extra push ups, sit ups, playing more sports, and running and I was back in prime form. Then, I hit my early thirties and noticed things weren’t as easy as they used to be.
Here, I had a game-changing observation. I started going to gym every day at lunch, and noticed there were a lot of regulars who would religiously spend their lunch hour every day doing the following: 30 min on a stationary machine, 20 minutes or so on isolation machines, and then finish with some bosu ball situps and stretching. Guess what? None of them looked like they worked out at all. Sure, I give them credit for taking initiative to exercise for their health, but if I was going to spend 5+ hours a week training I wanted it so show both in appearance and performance.
That’s when I started reading and learning about training, planning, and progressing. Amazing what a difference that can make. Even now, I have friends who do just what I mentioned above. It’s their own life and I don’t want to give unsolicited advice, but when they do ask for it they still just can’t get past the steady-state cardio and isolation to death workouts.
You’re body doesn’t care if you hit a muscle 2x in 7 days week. 2x every 8 -9 days works great and less taxing.
Simple works great. I’ve seen several vids of old training Footage and those guys were jacked and strong. Old school training works. Genetics are the main factor and you can’t learn great genetics.
You don’t have to be a fat load to be strong. Watch what you eat. Be at least partially accountable for the stuff you out in your mouth. (That’s what she said)
I cannot agree with this more. When I switched from mostly PL to mostly strongman stuff (especially awkward object clean and press), my athletic ability and physical size increased significantly. In about 3 years I gained over 20 pounds while staying at the same % BF. An added bonus is that my conditioning is much better, too.
Unfortunately, I can only talk to my own experience, and for that, it’s log and keg. In a commercial gym setting…find a way to get a log or keg.
However, that said, don’t mistake the message: I’m not saying that DOING the log and/or keg press is what transforms your physique: I’m saying PURSUING a big log/keg press is what does it. The things you need to do/muscles you need to build to achieve those goals result in you having to build up a very rugged physique. If you want to build up a big bench, you can totally neglect your lower body/majority of your posterior chain, by evidence of the fact we got dudes benching 600+ in the para-olympics. There are 900lb deadlifters that have rather unimpressive upperbody development. The squat’s limitations are pretty obvious. But you’d be hard pressed (oh my god pun totally unintended but now I love it) to find a dude that picks something heavy off the floor and presses it STRICTLY overhead that doesn’t have a solid physique top to bottom.
When I set my PRs on the log and keg, I was training overhead once a week. But I was training the pressing MUSCLES twice a week (once on my press day and once on my bench day). Big thing is, along with all the obvious muscles involved in pressing (chest, shoulders and triceps), you gotta build up a monstrous back. Rows, chins, pulldowns and pull aparts rule the day.
For long term success, enjoying training is more important than nuanced optimization. Hard work is more important than the perfect program and if you enjoy what you’re doing you end up working hard or more consistently. A “sub-optimal” program can get you better results.
I also used to subconsciously think that my training would evolve basically into the perfect program and that I would do that forever. Now that I have gotten older that just doesn’t work. I get about 16 weeks into training a discipline of some sort really hard and focused until I break. Now I train in seasons. I do one thing hard for about 12 weeks and then change it up. Getting hurt and losing a years worth of progress is way worse than training a little differently for 12 weeks and getting better at something else.
