In my short time in a box gym

I need to get this off of my chest, but before I do I need to lay out the following:

1. There are exceptions to every rule.  I’m going to speak in general terms and paint the picture with broad strokes.  If this offends you, chances are that I wasn't referring to you, or I was and don't care.
2. The views expressed here are not necessarily shared by any other member of the RB group as a whole.  Just mine.

I've been around long enough to notice a pattern, and I know I’m not alone.  Some people will quietly agree, some will boastfully say I didn't go far enough, but neither are required.  This is more food for thought than anything else.

Sportsmanship, maturity, generosity, brotherhood, attitude.  These are some of the many traits that define the sports athlete.  I see those traits in people, as well as seeing a gaping void where they should be in others. 

Again, I’m going to speak in general terms when I talk about strength sports, and my experience in Powerlifting. 

As a newcomer to the sport, and it is most definitely that, a sport, I notice that nearly every athlete, every participant have very similar attributes.  I notice a willingness to help a fellow competitor.  I see guys screaming their head off when a competitor lifts, even when they are in direct competition in the same weight class.  Whether it’s chalking your buddy’s shoulders or helping them into gear or letting a competitor borrow wraps or a belt when they forgot theirs, there is a unity in the air that can be felt. 

This extends beyond the platform too.  I’ve been lucky enough to train with some great lifters and share knowledge as well as learn a lot along the way.  The only way to do this is to be totally and completely open minded and humble.  You’ve got to be able to take constructive criticism.  Not only that, but you’ve got to be able to tell a friend that his squat looked like shit when it did, or else you’re just coddling. 

It may just be that the pure nature of powerlifting draws personalities that have those attributes.  From what I’m learning and experiencing, PL takes a lot of work.  No shit, right? That work is performed for the promise of attaining a goal, and that goal is a quantitative measurement or your accumulated skill, strength and experience expressed in the form of a number, or set and total of numbers.

By and large, the lifts themselves aren’t flashy.  You aren’t judged on how you look outside of the rules of the lift.  You’re judged on what you can DO.  That to me is the definition of a sport: Doing. Doing more than your competitor.  But Sadly, some people are less interested in DOING and more interested in how they LOOK.

I see a lot of guys in the gym, or in forums, or in video’s, in advertisements or even in public who embody that.  It’s a different mindset, it’s a different set of attributes.  Self love, vanity, immaturity, arrogance, insecurity, jealousy.  I see these people unable to take advice.  I see these people put in obsessively hard work to be happy gazing into a mirror. 

More than that, I see these people flaunt themselves around like camera whores.  I’ve even seen people justify a high squat by totally ignoring science, claiming that their friend who took an online personal training course said it was bad for the back and knees.  Using excuses that coincidentally make their way easier than the right way.  Those kind of people don’t seem to want to GET better, them want their false outer image to LOOK better. 

They’re also the first to try to compare dicks, figuratively. These are the guys who flock to bodybuilding forums and post about how much they deadlifted out of the rack and bounced off of the rubber floor with wrist straps, or did quarter power bows in the squat rack with 5 plates.  More concerned with which NO supplement will get their veins to pop the most rather than the fact that their rounding their back on a pull, screaming "don't fuckin touch the bar!" as they're pinned or bouncing the bar 2” into their sternum to get some rebound on their bench.  So what if the lifts look like shit, that’s a lot of weight!

Ok, they’re douchebags.  So why do I care?

One simple reason.  Bodybuilding is and has always been more visible, popular, accessible, advertised and distributed than powerlifting.  Magazines like Flex, Muscle & Fitness, Built, AXL, Kaged muscle, Men’s fitness, Monster Muscle yadda yadda yadda. To date, there are as many as 30 bodybuilding magazines easily available on news stands, and only ONE true powerlifting magazine, Mark Bell’s POWER Magazine. 

Well, the internet is still pumping out powerlifting literature right?  Sure, but google “Strength” and look at the top results.  After the wiki definitions, who’s got the top spot?  Bodybuilding.com!  Bodybuilding, the sport where strength doesn’t matter.  The sport where strength is just a byproduct of SIZE. 

Bodybuilding drowns out the rest with flashy advertising, over the top pageantry and ridiculous looking role models.  Look at the Arnold Classic, or the Olympia.  Both huge bodybuilding expos.  Guess who gets to take the stage as a sideshow?  Strength sports.  PL, Grip, Strongman.  Like circus freaks.  The message is loud and clear to today’s youth looking for direction:  It’s all about how you LOOK.

Life isn’t a beauty pageant, it’s a competition.  Life is about bettering yourself and your situation in the face of adversity.  It’s about working hard to achieve, working hard to eat, working hard to survive.  Did your grandfather give a shit about how his ABS looked? Fuck no!  Did the greatest generation defeat the nazi’s with back double bicep poses?  Shit no!  When the hell did guys stop trying to get strong and start caring about how strong they look!? 

People who live their lives for the appearance, for the LOOK tend to be that shallow lady you hate at work, or the flashy douchbag in the 4cyl convertible with the racing stripes revving his engine at the stop light.  Living your life for the look is as artificial as captain biceps on the magazine cover wowing the impressionable kids with his roided out pipes, selling big box creatine for only $85.  Vanity, self love, insecurity, big-o-rexia.  These are the subliminal messages being sold to our kids.  The lie that Big not only equals strong, but that Big > Strong.

Unfortunately, they’ve got the corner on the market still. But there’s always a silver lining.  With the rise of competitive strength sports, it seems like more kids are bypassing the pony show for something just a little harder to find in all of the noise.  Fewer guys are drooling over the muscular thighs of some bigger than life poser and actually getting in the gym to put the work into strength. Something bigger than they are, a brotherhood, a sport. 

Will Strength sports ever rise to the notoriety of bodybuilding?  Time will tell, but in the mean time, I’ll be working on and sharing a passion for strength and performance.  Those others with mandatory mirror time can keep blasting their guns and lying to the world about how strong they are.

Fuck Protocol

Edgy title, very cursey.  I haven't posted in a hot minute because I've been busy adding slabs of beef to my arms legs and torso but I wanted to collect some good quality brain farts in a jar and release them all at once in a giant cloud before I just settled on writing something less than sincere in a sentence THIS long.  So here we go:

Fuck protocol

Specifically, fuck you for following it to the letter, and even more specifically, fuck your gains.  I'm seeing it pop up in a few places still, guys and gals following a piece of paper that says do a 3x8 with X amount of weight and blowing through it without much thought to the point of why they're even doing it.

Why 3x8?  is it only 8 reps because 10 would be too hard, sloppy or impossible?  Do your delts know how to count?  Is this a magic code that your body understands and starts pumping out test?  Is it... ok you get the point.

What if I told you that the concrete number of sets and reps and weight didn't matter by themselves?  What WOULD matter?  How do people become bigger and stronger?

Working against various levels of resistance in different states of fatigue. That's it.

How much WORK are you doing by flailing your chicken wings for 3 sets of eight or one set of two  reverse band when the resistance just isn't there.  Ask yourself this:  Could I have done 3, 4 or 5 more?  If the answer is "yeah probably" then you probably aren't doing shit in the gym.

Now I'm not advocating training to failure and I do leave a rep in the tank on most every lift, but what I'm saying is train for the days INTENT, not the numbers on the paper. 

A lot of people like set in stone rep schemes.  They buy an e-book and trade the price they pay for the luxury of not having to think.  If they just do the exact reps and sets as prescribed, then it's the programs fault if they don't grow stronger or bigger.

Wrong, asshole.

It's YOUR fault for not being invested in your own training. My advice to the young, up and coming, the lazy and the uninspired is the same:  Fuck protocol.  Go off the reservation once in a while, step out of your safe place and get your feet wet, beat your own path, blaze your own trail, google your own cliché.  Take responsibility for your own gains (if you really give a shit.)

If the sheet says do squat triples with 300 and it was too easy, fuck you for not using 305, 310 or 315.  You've totally missed the entire INTENT of the day, heavy triples.  HEAVY, not kinda heavy, not light, not fast, not easy.  Do some HEAVY work.  Same goes for having an off or shitty day.  If you're programmed for 5 sets of 3 with 300 and the first set you only completed two, then drop down to 285 and get a third on your next set.  Vary the weight to get the desired effect of heavy triples.

obligatory photo of my back

Now obviously not everyone is going to agree with that, and I'm not presuming to tell an elite or experienced athlete how to train, because odds are that they change things on the fly in training all of the time already.  Changing the workload or the weight, (up or down) is better than changing the INTENT of the day.

I set my bench training up to be a challenge that I know I will complete week in and week out.  The weight and volume stays challenging but I'm always a step ahead of the days work.  The INTENT of the day is always set in stone, but the sets and/or reps may change depending on the variables of the day.

For instance, 3 weeks ago I was programmed for heavy bench triples.  Well I was out of town for work and lifting at midnight after a long day on the job.  I completed 3 of the 5 sets and knew the 4th and 5th just weren't there, so I switched to floor press and completed them that way.

Conversely, this past week I had heavy bench triples again and not only did I smash all sets with a heavier programmed weight, but I even went UP 5#'s on the last set and destroyed it as well.

Speaking of the bench program, several people have begun training with this method and are reporting positive results.  The feedback I'm getting confirms what I already knew.  My program isn't just the holy grail for my titties, but for titties everywhere.  Here's what some peeps had to say about it so far:

"Beats the shit outta 531 for me when it comes to bench. always felt like I wasn't warmed up enough when I got to the final 531 set and then that was it (and it was an AMRAP set). feel like RBBP gives me more practice dialing in form with relatively heavier weights due to the volume." -BR

"I did my first bench day on your program yesterday. Im liking it a lot so far. I showed it to a few guys at Iron Mafia and they said it looked really solid. Another guy is gonna use it as well." -JG

"So it's week 3, came in thinking 320 for the 5x3...smoked 325 for it instead, fired the fuck up about this program." -MT

I am literally no one in the sport of powerlifting and three testimonials isn't anything to pitch a tent about, but I know these guys look stronger and say they feel stronger and that makes me feel pretty damn good about the program.

Your max may be limiting you

I write this blog partly to just get ideas out of my head so I stop dwelling on them but mostly as a written dialogue for the younger lifters that I train with.  A lot of times in the gym, I'm less than articulate in my approach and it takes me much longer to convey info since I'm usually out of breath and sweating while I'm there.  I try to give cues but all I can muster are words like "cake" and "give me cake."  Not helpful to the kid learning to sumo...

Writing this BLAUGH is much easier, I can google big words to use, research a topic before I realize I was totally wrong and generally make it seem like whatever I'm saying looks good because it ends up well written.  I could probably advocate the consumption of donkey shit post workout and still someone would tell me it was a good post.  Shout out to my wife!

That said, this is info that is certainly not a pile of scat.  Scat is another word for shit that I just googled.  This is going well.

I think, as a powerlifter, the idea of constantly knowing your max on any of the lifts is a detriment to your total.  "But Josh, entire training methodologies are based upon calculating percentages of your max for each lift, yadda yadda yadda."  I know.  They're based off your OLD max.

When I say or write the above title, I mean it as a mental block IN TRAINING.  A lifter, hell lets just call him Michael Douglas. Lets say Michael Douglas squatted 500 pounds at a meet a few months ago and he based the percentages of that lift for the weight he'll use for the next 10 weeks on (pick your favorite e-book program.)

When Michael Douglas is 6-7 weeks in and starts hitting heavier numbers, he's already got a limit stuck in his head.  His 100%, 500lbs.  Even though that's an old number, in this template, that is his absolute ceiling... mentally.  And although that isn't the intention of the program, at the very first sign of trouble, the first hard rep or bad set or day, Michael Douglas is thinking to himself: "I'm getting close to my 500lb max" or "That's too close to my max to rep." That was a long ass sentence but the grammar check didn't flag it so I'm moving on.

It's that type of mentality that is the beginning of stagnation and plateau for Michael Douglas.  Time to blame the program and switch it right away Mike! 5/3/cube-side sucks!

Strength levels are fluid ladies and gentlemen.  Max's are a snap shot in time of a wave of potential.  Unless you have a great coach or are a genius, you probably didn't take that snap shot at the absolute peak of the wave.

Your absolute top level of strength should be a guestimate at best.  A projection based on training, current health, sleep, this, that, everything.  We have no fucking clue what our absolute max is except the very moment that we're executing it.  When you know that this is the strongest you've ever felt and it would only take another pound or two for gravity to win, you're truly maxing.  That is how training should be.  Using an OLD number to get a NEW one while you're somewhere in between.

Training is work.  We work and we build our house.  We build a sturdy foundation with volume, we build upon that with accessories.  We temper the steel with increased loads to tie it all together and then on meet day we unleash a hurricane from hell on ourselves.

Too often I see younger guys and older guys unleashing a self inflicted category 5 of whoop ass trying to "know" their max in training week after week after week.  When does the building take place?  How can you build upon the foundation when it just isn't there or erodes away?  Why is knowing your limit in training so important and what at are you supposed to do with that information when you get it? (side note, I had like 10 more house references but you get the point.)

That's when your max may be limiting you.  Mentally and physically, constantly knowing what you CANNOT do isn't going to help you do it.  Your max at this moment should be an absolute mystery. Like a gift you give yourself at mock meet or God help you, a REAL MEET.

In preparation for a meet, some guys have all 3 attempts planned out already.  Really?  Who are you, Tiny Meeker now?  Ok Andy Bolton, skip your second attempt to be fresh for your third like you planned out 6 months ago.  Why are you so damn sure you're going to set a record as a class 2 lifter?  How do you know exactly where you're going to land?  Plan the opener and enjoy the feeling of totally surprising yourself after that.  What's the point of even going to the meet if you know how it's going to turn out?  That would suck the fun out of it for me, and I fucking love fun so hard.

Fuck your max, there I said it.  Let go of your preconceived notions of how strong you are.  Your max is old and you're a different person day to week to month.  Work hard and consistent and reach for the stars. (I found that last one when I googled cliché.)

Red Bearded Bastardized Periodization

Let's just get this out of the way.  I'm in my early 30's, I compete at 275 and 308, raw and I'm not a "good" bencher.  Yet.


 I've tried a lot of different bench programs.  I've followed some religiously, deviated from some and even tried to wing it but my bench stayed the same for a while.  Most recently, I used a well known PL E-book's method, then a custom written program, then a coaches program.  All of it was great and made sense on paper but it didn't necessarily translate to bigger numbers for me, and my pecs were getting pretty fucking tired of it.

While recovering from a back injury, my bench transitioned from a competition arch, to a feet up, flat backed press.  I had to start off light to keep the abdominal pressure down at first, so I decided to focus on bringing my grip in more narrow for a while.  Although the weights were lighter, the changes I made kept the weight challenging.  That was good for a while, until months later I was healthy enough and could put my heels back on the ground and use a little leg drive.

The guys I train with planned to lift at a meet a few months away down in SC at Donnie Thompson's gym The Compound.  I was excited and although I was still on the mend, I made it my goal to get well enough to bench there with my team.



One of my first nights back to benching after injuring 4 L-spine discs

The next thing I had to figure out was how I was going to utilize the next 10 weeks to prepare myself.  So I decided to see where I was at on bench and took some singles.  My max had dropped but I was able to grind out a double with 335 and a nasty 365 for 1.  Not great, even for me who has struggled on bench for years.

Well, I thought, lets see what I can get a 5x5 with.  And Red Bearded Bastardized Periodization was born.

Week 1: My "week 1" started in March 2014.  It was a simple 5x5 with 315, but I had never gotten all 5 reps on the last set the last time I had tried it prior to the injury, so it was a "pr."  From this day, the entire program was built upon.  Getting all the reps on each sets CLEANLY and with good form was important, since all weeks ahead build upon this weight.  If you fuck up or cheat a little on week 1, this is not going to go well moving forward.  It's better to start a little too light than too heavy.

Week 2: The next week would drop a rep, add a set and 10#'s.  This was basically a way to lift an additional 10#'s per rep with similar work load over last week. So I did 6x4 with 325 for week 2.

Week 3: I felt good going into week 3, so I decided to add weight and do sets of 3.  Five sets were enough to feel the work load, and 15#'s felt right, even though I could have added 5 more #'s on any set.  Kept it in check though, the heavier weight was coming later.

Week 4: The beginning of the second 3 week wave was just as simple as week 1, a 5x5 but with a little more weight.  I added 5#'s and used 320 for all sets.  This was another PR, although this week 4 felt like where the rubber met the road for me.

Week 5, finally a change.  As the weight increases week to week, something has to change before I hit a wall.  This week is still more weight, still sets of 4 but the volume has tapered down a bit.  Rather than 6 sets, I did 4.  That alone was great just for the mentality as the weight increased to 330.  2 sets in and I was 1/2 way through, that was motivating, but so was how fast the weight was moving.  I was getting stronger and I could notice it.

Week 6: Yet another volume taper was in order.  This week was still meant for triples, but with fewer sets again.  The weight was 345, and done for 2 fewer sets than week 3, only doing 3.

Week 7: The weight goes up to 325 for 3 sets of  5.  Prior to this, 325 may have been my 5 rep max at one point, but now I was doing it for 3 sets and the reps were smooth and fast.

Week 8: The volume is still down to 3 sets, the reps were 4 with 335.  On my first set, I was surprised on how easy the weight felt, and the command that I had over the bar.  This helped me blast through the other sets.

Week 9: This week was done on the road at a different gym out of state.  Although I had to travel for work, I always bring my lifting bag with me.  I had a variety of spotters that day, and although the bench was slippery vinyl and the hand offs were shakey, I managed to take my previous weight of 365 which I had barely locked out only 9 weeks prior for 4 sets of doubles, and they were commanding.  In addition, I overloaded this week with the original red slingshot and took 3 singles over 400.  I was ready!

Week 10: The Meet.  I was pumped.  It had been a real transitional 2 and a half months for me, from living with an involuntarily limp from the disc herniation onto the sciatic nerve, to being able to bench better than before I had injured my back.  I warmed up with about 15 other raw lifters, taking turns smashing triples a plate and a quarter at a time.  My last warm up was 335 and it was faster than ever before.

I opened with 365, and although the bar felt heavy in the hands, the rep flew up. Dave Hoff gave the rack command and I was on the board with three whites.  I knew I was good for more, so I asked for 385.

Now back in the day, 385 was my best ever touch and go bench, ass off the bench, uneven lock out gym lift.  But I hadn't even touched that weight in a while.

On my second attempt, I remember thinking on the decent, "man, this is heavy."  When I heard that press command, the bar just came off of my chest like a hydraulic jack was helping me.  Waited for the rack command and 3 whites.  25# meet PR and I had taken my bench up 20#'s over my touch n go from 10 weeks prior.

My third attempt was 400.  It didn't feel any heavier than 385 but it stalled at about a 3 board.  I still had work to do to get that one.

Second cycle:  I decided that the bulk of the program was great, but I tweaked a few thing during the cycle.  For one, I made the last set on the 5 rep days OR about 80% for an AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible.)  This was done for two reasons.  First, just to add extra work and volume and secondly, as a built in test that can be measured with a rep calculator to track progress.

Also, I moved the bulk of my accessory work to a second upper body day.  On those days, I work on speed bench, AMRAP's with 60% and lower, long count pauses, benching an inch off of the chest, OHP, dumbbells and other accessories.




As of this post, I just finished up week 9 of the second cycle and I'm confident about smashing the 400 barrier next week.  Below is the template that I've used, with the weights that I've used:

W1: 5x5 - 325
W2: 6x4 - 335
W3: 5x3 - 350

W4: 5x5 - 330 (last set 6)
W5: 4x4 - 340
W6: 3x3 - 355 + 315 x 9 (2 rep PR)

W7: 3x5 - 335 (last set 6)
W8: 3x4 - 345
W9: 4x2 - 370 + 3 singles at 415 with red slingshot

W10: Test
(Update: Set PR's 400 and 405)

Note: To make this program work with your numbers, use the following template. 

Make week 1's weight be a weight that you can confidently complete for 5 sets of 5 reps or about 80% of your best clean 1rm.  Less is more here, resist the urge to start too heavy. I cannot emphasize this enough, it only gets harder.

W1: 5x5 (80%) last set AMRAP
W2: 6x4 (80%+10-15#'s)
W3: 5x3 (80%+15-20#'s)

W4: 5x5 (80%+5-10#'s) last set AMRAP
W5: 4x4 (80%+15-20#'s)
W6: 3x3 (80%+20-25#'s)

W7: 3x5 (80%+15-20#'s) last set AMRAP
W8: 3x4 (80%+20-25#'s)
W9: 4x2 (80%+45-50#'s)

W10: Test

I feel great on this amount of volume and my strength has been climbing. Best of luck to you in your training.

The Red Bearded Bastard,
Josh Mac

Don't wait for injury to make you better

What's that old saying?  "If I had known then what I know now, blah blah blah."  Back in my teens and twenties I couldn't care less about what that meant or who said it.  All that mattered was what was directly in front of me.  My next move in life, the next goal.  I was a real prick.

I was and still am passionate, but back then it was misdirected.  Passion is great, but like glasses without lenses, passion is useless without focus.

My passion for lifting and competing was cultivated out of an awakening in my twenties that I was fat and weak.  Like the big bang, I was a single point of energy that exploded in every direction.  My only destination was "further" from where I started, but the journey was linear and aimless.  All that mattered was the results.

This mentality followed me through my "training adolescents" and with me into my 30's (probably midlife at this rate.)  As much experience as I thought I had, it didn't stop me from accruing avoidable injuries.

If I could go back 10 years, back to the young stud with so much potential, I'd tell myself one thing:  "Don't wait for injury to lift better."

Back then I'd have scoffed at it.  Since I was invincible and totally blind to my own little mistakes.  The problem is, those little mistakes added up over the course of a decade and bit me in the ass last year.

But since suffering a 4 level back injury and spending months and months recovering, I'm now a better lifter.

As of this writing, about 7 months after the injury that doctors said would end my lifting as I knew it, I am within 85% of my deadlift and more than 90% of my squat, and I'm in no type of rush.

So how am I a better lifter with lower lifts?

Back injuries are very serious are often the last coffin nail in a competitive career in strength sports. So I started back slowly, with an empty barbell.  I stretched a lot, and I focused on the most important thing, form.

But when form became my first priority, the weights just flew up.  It was like fucking magic.

The proof for me is waking up in the morning with LESS pain now than before the injury.  The constant shit form had been taking it's toll on me for some time.  Not until I stopped flexing nuts, swallowed my pride and started doing it right did the pain disappear.  Even now with so much damage, I have very little nerve pain and my disc bulges have resolved themselves before another herniation.

Injury has forced me how to squat better.  Slowing everything down and going though the motion in my head has resulted in a better squat, and one day soon, a heavier squat because of it.

Having that back injury has made me learn sumo in a way that no video or article would have been able to teach.  In the past, my sumo deadlift was basically mailed in.  It usually ended up being a wide stance RDL.  ALL back, no hips. And I didn't give a fuck because I was a conventional puller who only did sumo cause the sheet of paper said to.

Once I had to learn something just to be able to continue on, I learned it.  But the tragedy is that it took a life long injury to finally wake me up.

Injury didn't make me a better lifter, rather, injury forced me to learn to lift better.

I want to really impress that on younger lifters.  Don't sacrifice your body for a number. Slow down and trust in the training.  If you can't do it with the same form, then you can't lift it.  You can get a lot further doing it right than yanking on the bar and praying it goes well.

What's the rush?  Part of what I like about competing in Powerlifting and strongman is training for it.  But rushing through cycles and forcing ugly PR's wasn't going to last forever. Instead I wish I had just done the quality work and gotten stronger rather that focus so much on numbers in training where they don't count.  I made the time to be there training, so I had better make the best use of that time. Anything less than that is just slowing me down toward my goals.

I mean if you only have a month left as a junior and you want to squat a record before your birthday and you grind out the ugliest squat for two whites to get that trophy sword, I get it.  But what happens when your birthday comes and now you're in open where your squat isn't the best anymore?  What the hell did you really prove, and how much of your future did you gamble for it?  You'll never make it pro if you fuck yourself up permanent in pop warner.

I'm still here today, so what was my rush?  Why did I let myself round over a little just to "get" the lift, or the rep pr?  Where does that leave you after an injury?  In a shoe store selling shoes to large women and reminiscing about throwing touchdowns at Polk High?

I have a lot more responsibility under that bar now.  I have a family to provide for, so I need to be able to work.  I have to be able to walk when I'm a cranky old son of a bitch.  I have to make sure the lift in front of me is chosen with my head and not my balls.  These are things that should have been in the front of my mind from day one, but weren't.

Injury has forced me to slow down and see the track that I should have been on all along.  I wish it hadn't happened, but since I can't change the past I look to the future.  And the only thing that keeps me lifting on for years is paying attention, staying humble and doing it fucking right. 

I highly recommend those last three.

Chasing the max

I read this problem in a lot of forums.  Somebody will be desperately sending out a plea for help in some lifting or bodybuilding forum because their lift didn't go up.  I mean, they lifted weight since the last time they tested their max, so isn't it just supposed to go up?  What's the universes fucking problem here?  Doesn't physics know that they waited a whole damn 2 weeks to max out on bench again?  Why can't they bench 2 goddamn plates yet?!

Aside for the fact that they've been lifting as long as the expiration period of milk, they want fucking answers.  These answers they seek needn't be too complicated or long and drawn out studies of the human anatomy, central nervous system or dietary needs. They're not going to even reach the last period of the paragraph without mispronouncing 8 words in their own head. 

So here's a simple answer that even a personal trainer at an O2 fitness can understand:  Momentum.

When you have momentum, you have movement.  When you don't, you stall.  Boom, it really is that simple.

Strength gain IS momentum.

GAINZ are the body's response to stimuli.  Testing a max is literally a snapshot in time of a strength wave that is slowly in motion.  Peaking cycles take advantage of this phenomenon by testing as close to the height of the wave, the lifters strongest snapshot in time.

But on a dumbed down level, lets just talk about the lifts and the mentality of chasing the max.

The lifter, we'll call him "Chandler," complains that his max hasn't gone up since 3 months ago.  He's also been testing it every two weeks like every 20 year old with a BB.com account.  He has stalled, and like the floor of a port-o-john at a Luke Bryan concert, he's pissed.

Now I don't necessarily give a shit if he ever figures this out for himself or not, but my recommendation would be... gain momentum.

Gain momentum in ANYTHING.  He needs a sturdy foothold to start his climb.  Rep max's, more volume, forced reps... do anything that you're currently NOT doing right now and then get better at it.  If Chandler can't hit that 1rm after 2 weeks of half assed training, then how about establishing a 5 or 10 rep max.  THEN BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

Momentum will start to make itself evident, you'll know when you're finally getting stronger.  Once you KNOW you're getting stronger, then it accelerates even more. 

The mindset plays a large role in lifting.  Ever hear the expression "Smells blood in the water?"  Once a shark catches the scent of blood, it turns from an asshole to a mega asshole.  Why?  Because it's hungry as fuck, and it smells dinner. 

When a fighter opens up the cheek or forehead of their opponent, they go fucking insane!  They know the tide has shifted in their favor, and they know that the other fighter knows it too.

Lifters are the same way. 

Once you get momentum on your side, your motivation increases, your confidence builds and you stop looking up to the weights that you've put on a pedestal and start looking down on them like PREY.  You stop hoping and wishing that you can "get" the lift, or that the weight will "let" you lift it that day and you start salivating as you look at the bar like fresh baby seal that you're about to rip open.  You stop doubting yourself as much, and you can't wait for that day of the week when you're going to just crush your sets like you're the baddest mother fucker in the room.

That's the importance of momentum. Take advantage of that shit and ride that wave all the way to your new max.

Performing below your best

We’ve all been there.  You’re coming back from an injury and training lighter, or maybe you’re done with your sets and you’re hitting accessories, or you just plain aren’t feeling it that day.  It never fails, that’s when “that” guy comes over and sets up on the rack, bench or bar next to you.

Now you’re bigger, and you know you’re stronger… but he doesn’t.  To him, you look like a giant pussy with all of that light weight!

You’re doing a downset with a percentage of your capabilities and he’s warming up with just a little less.  He’s gonna pass you in a few minutes.  And when he does, YOU know that you were smashing a couple hundred pounds more than his sets, but HE doesn’t.  Neither do the guys who are working in with him, slamming the bar down and giving each other bro-fives. There's no instant replay here, so what are ya gonna do?

They’re looking over at this big guy sweating and out of breath in front of a bar loaded with mere peanuts.  They just missed your last set where you smashed that heavy triple, that would have crippled them, like it was a fucking toy before all but unloading the bar to get some extra work in.

Now I’m not gonna lie, I’d like to sit here and act like I don’t give a fuck about how I’m viewed and I’m above the petty pissing matches between me and complete strangers.  But that’s bullshit.  I’ve worked hard to be the Caucasian silverback I sit here today as and I didn’t do it by lifting light weight.  It’s important to me, the red bearded bastard, to let the 19 year old dub step fans of the world know that this was my house back when I was 100%.

Really?

YES, I’m THAT petty.

Now I don’t lift in box gyms often, maybe once or twice a month when I’m away on business.  The majority of the time I train with a powerlifting team out of a small power gym in Raleigh.  These are guys I see 3-4 times a week who are all goal oriented and put the same work in that I do.  That has been what I’ve been accustomed to and if you have the chance to train at one, take it.

But on the road, I go to this box gym.

It plays lil jon and maroon 5 almost exclusively.  The old strength equipment has been replaced by cookie cutter “Lifestyle” racks and benches.  There are rules posted on the mirrored walls that stretch from front to back.  The clients range from the guys in the bro science to the guys in the awkward gym moments vids.  Gloves, sporting good store belts, wrist straps, beats by Dre head phones and dew rags… on white dudes.

This is my haven a few times a month.

I’ve done some decent lifts here. Not elite by any means but I’ve broken plates, bent bars and bled all over the floor there. I’ve had it out with the manager about using chalk and slammed weight down there to the amazement of onlookers on several occasions.  I don't scream and yell to get attention, hell, here I don't have to.  Usually a front squat gets people to look up from their own 15" arms.

But gym lifts don’t count, and don’t mean shit.  All that matters is what you’re doing now and what you could do in a meet.  And right now I ain’t 100%.  I belt up early on lighter weight, I struggle with what used to be warm up weight. There’s just shit I plain old can’t do right now.

So when the kid with the string tank and lift strong bracelet comes up along side of me puffing his chest out, tossing a plate on the bar and yelling like a fool, there’s a part of me that wants to load that bar back up and watch his little hairless jaw drop to the floor.  I want to lift the bar overhead with one hand and give him the finger with the other.  I want to tell him his music sucks and maybe, just maybe even punch him in his little fucking FACE!

But I don’t.

I don’t because I know who I am and what I’ve done.  I have a total that I worked for, one that I know that I’m capable of beating when I’m as healed up as I’m gonna get.  My lifts aren’t astounding or earth shattering, but they’re mine.  I know the pain it took to add every pound.

So when this kid thinks he’s the shit when he’s bent over rowing 135, yelling and slamming the bar, I just have to remember.  That was me way back when, and the old heads I used to see never punched me in the face or told me that Pantera sucked.

So I just put it aside. Rather than run over there and throw the bar 10ft in the air with one hand, I block out the terrible music and finish my shitty set. All the while imagining the buffet that awaits me when I’m done.  That, and avoid eye contact so nobody asks me to spot them.

 I really fucking hate that, because they’re people and they’re talking to me.

2 more sets and I can eat.

The Pitfall of Testing

In my time on earth and under a bar, I've noticed a few things about the "fitness industry" and its participants.  There are many different types of fitness enthusiast but more often that not they share a similar trait of specified training.  Staying inside their box while they judge the outsiders.  I never fit that mold very well.  I like to do too many different tings, sometimes simultaneously i.e. writing this and shitting.

I started or restarted my strength goals while watching worlds strongest man in my 20's, and wondering why I had let myself become such a weak pathetic tub of pig shit.  Even then I knew I wasn't going to pick the bar back up and regain my late teens V-taper or boyish good looks, but I had to chip away at weakness a day and week at a time. Also, it was imperative that I grow a beard.  More on that later.

I made a lot of mistakes early on.  Diet was terrible, calories were low often times. Hell even today I still don't drink enough water.  I did too much cardio, I didn't practice good form on lifts, and the lifts I chose weren't the core strength lifts, they were ez bar curls and calf raises.

Still, somehow I ended up with back muscles.  I'll never figure that one out.

Then I fell into the trap. Not TRAP like the neckatles I walk around with.   The YouTube trap.

I used to be a YouTube lifter, I used to compare myself with people across the country or globe and train "feats."  What I mean by "feats" is a one time, holy shit I got it on camera, type of lift or movement.  My first 70+ hub lift was a feat video, double overhand deadlifting a 2" axle for a one rep max was a feat, trying to bend a grade 5 bolt supersetted with a 405 front squat was a feat.

Being a YouTube lifter is easy.  Create an account, search for videos of a feat you think you can almost do and then try like fuck to do it on camera until you make it.  There are a lot of deleted video files on the path to YouTube Stardom. But keep it up, literally 10's of people are watching.

The problem is that I didn't "train."  Instead, I made YouTube content the same way I THOUGHT others did, I'd warm up to a max attempt on something day after day and week after week.  I wasn't putting in the work, no real volume.  It was just one giant internet pissing contest between me and the world, and my bladder was exhausted.

The pitfall of constantly testing was stagnation.  I plateaued and flat lined for a while.  Once I started training for the future, instead of the here and now, gains began to roll in and pr's arrived.

10 week cycles became the norm.  Prescribed reps and set schemes, programmed mock meets 2+ months away was laid before me.  Written as a vague templates in ebooks (written by people waaaay stronger than me) for me to sharpen and mold to myself.

This type of training saw me the greatest results.  It kept me in check, but kept me working hard at the same time.  But the one thing I missed was the "test."

Not the hormone, trust me I've got that one covered (This is where the beard comes back into play.)  I mean testing, actually seeing how good you have become.

It used to be ALL I did, literally.  But to gamble a couple of 10 week cycles on a PR one day 4-5 months from now was a tough adaptation.  It's probably a sign of my generation, wanting quick results.  But I look at it like I would my wife baking a pumpkin pie.  There's a reason why there's a glass window on the front of the oven.  We don't just set the timer and hope for the best.  We peek at that little fucker to make sure it isn't on fire. 

Why?

cause we want to eat that fucker. Just like we want that PR.

For me, my oven window is the rep max or AMRAP set.  A simple set that not only supports BUILDING strength, but also acts as a gauge as to probable strength levels.

This week, I'm 6 weeks into a 10 week cycle.  It's tough to fight off that feeling of wanting to let a few singles fly after the boring rep work of the day.  Instead, I tested an AMRAP at 80%.  (Not 80% OF 90% like some ebooks suggest, I mean like 80% of the actual most I've ever lifted in a meet.)

Well guess what, got 9 reps on bench.  That's a 2 rep PR.  ...a PR, ...one that I can compare in the future to the past.  A set that not only told me where I was at, but helped me to get where I'm headed.

That's roughly 4 1/2 reps PER TIT!!

This isn't a novel concept or one that I have in anyway helped to create.  In fact some ebook templates even encourage or prescribe AMRAP sets.  For me, AMRAP sets or REP PR sets help keep me engaged in the program and embolden my resolve to stay the course. 

"They" say the best time to change a program is a month BEFORE you plateaued.

...well how the fuck would you KNOW?!  Testing at the end of a normal 10 week cycle is like Christmas, all the presents at once for being good all cycle.  But testing AMRAP's is like Hanukkah!  PRESENTS OUT THE ASS...

It's good to check in and see where the fuck you're at every month or so.  I used to be a YouTube lifter, now I'm a lifter with a YouTube account.