Diet update

FUCK CUTTING.

Seriously it's just heart breaking watching my weight drop each week. I'm gonna still keep up the cardio and conditioning, but just pack on the mass again. This time I'll be keeping an eye on fat intake though, so it's a clean bulk at that. 

Yeah that's pretty much it.

Giants Live and Arnolds

This years WSM season is coming around the corner quickly, and what better way to kick start it off than the Giants Live tour coming to Leeds 23rd June 2012. Terry Hollands, Laurence Shahlaei, Mark Felix, Zydrunas Savickas, Thor Bjornsson, Vytautas Lalas and Stefan Solvi Petursson are just a few of the big names in attendance, with many more tagged on facebook (which I'll assume as unconfirmed for now, but who knows, maybe big Brian Shaw may show up again).

 It's £15 for a ticket, or £40 for a premier ticket. The latter seems fantastic value for money, including a Giants Live t-shirt, better seating and even a meet-the-competitors section which seems too good to pass up in my opinion. If anyone else is going, leave a message on here or facebook, Robyn and I will keep an eye out for you on the day! It's gonna be awesome.

And that leaves us with the Arnolds later this week. We've got two representitives this year with Terry and Loz taking on the world's finest, along with Mark Felix taking part in the grip challenge. 

Honestly, although he reckons not in top form, my bets are on Loz to take a podium placing at least. They're all really good events for him (no stones!) so he'll be a real contender for the Arnold title this year in my opinion. Like, I think the circus dumbbell will be his only event he won't smash as he holds records in pretty much everything else. Even then, he's got some epic leg strength which might just get that dumbbell up more times than others, so yeah, he'll wreck it.

Mark will probably win the Mighty Mitts challenge, he really is in a league of his own when it comes to raw static grip strength. It's a shame he won't be in the main competition, but I guess he'd rather go for a near-definite win in his speciality field. Then again, last year he replaced someone for an injury in the main event, so fingers crossed for yet another injury! Erm... maybe that's a little harsh, but either way, it's gonna be a mental week for Strongman, and hopefully one of ours will be bringing home the gold!

Last years ridiculous 1110lb tire deadlift. Madness.

Elsewhere, In my hugely interesting life news, there's not really much to report on other than making a few friends at the gym. I'm usually very anti-social as I'm there purely to train and get the fuck home, but there's a few guys who I don't mind sharing a bit of banter with and it's nice to have a spotter I guess.

Cutting's going well, lost 2 kg in 3 weeks. It's nothing major as I'm still devouring 4000kcal a day, but just leaving out the fatty stuff. I'm also tightening my belt to the second hole again rather than the first, so I reckon the waist is getting a little less lardy. Cardio's still a bitch, but a necessary bitch. Urgh. I'm honestly not sure If I can be arsed anymore, I miss my bagels, whole milk and steak. We'll see...

My bench press is shit

Since October, I've managed to add 20kg+ to my squat and dead. My bench? It's actually decreased. I wouldn't be so mad except that my bench is actually 10kg under my bodyweight already; I'm not even close to 1x bodyweight bench (compared to my 2x dead and 1.5x squat). As much as I chat shit and pretend I know everything (seriously why has no one called me out on it yet?), I'm definitely doing something wrong.

At the moment my stats are as follows:

Height: 6'

Weight: 110kg

Bench: 100kg

Squat: 182.5kg

Deadlifht: 220kg

Overhead: 100kg

Seriously, if you've got any ideas, please leave a comment (down there somewhere) or on the facebook status which this blog will inevitably be plugged yet again.

In other news, I've had a few comments and queries as to why I'm cutting, contrary to my previous posts where I rode the 'more mass = more strength' train for so long. It's basically two things really. 

One is to get my CV conditioning up a bit. It's basically a by-product of cutting with a lot of cardio like rowing and elliptical training involved just to ensure I can climb stairs or tie a shoe lace without going into cardiac arrest. Losing the belly will definitely help my mobility with event training too (when the time comes) and I reckon raw speed is a niche in professional strongman, vacant since Mariusz's departure, that I reckon would be beneficial to fill. I've also shared a few messages with strongman legend Mark Felix over Twitter, and he strongly stands by CV (and in fact clean dieting too) as an utmost importance in the sport.

Obligatory image for post... Hey it's Mark Felix!

The other reason is to try clean bulking. I'm not gonna lie, dirty bulking is quick and effective, but it's contradictive to my CV work and after cutting I plan to try the clean route. It's possible, and I still have 50kg of oats left over from MyProtein's cock-up so it's not like it'll cost too much on a student budget either. The idea is to cut to some relatively decent non-blob shape and then bulk purely on clean food after that, all while trying and keep the CV and (eventually) event training at a decent frequency. It's a lot on my plate (BA DUM) but we'll see how it goes.

Things that piss me off

There must be like a million gym rants on the internet but I'm gonna go ahead and add another to the list. I usually moan in short bursts over facebook but in order to put an end to that, I'll list them here. So here goes, things that piss me off in the gym:

Gloves

Simple stuff really. You're basically saying 'I'm here to work hard, but I don't want to hurt my handies'. And don't give me excuses like extra grip, cos it doesn't help in the slightest. Proper grip comes from your hands; They're made for that shit. If they happen to get sweaty, use some chalk, you'll be absolutely amazed at how well your natural grip is without wet palms. It's also a hell of a lot cheaper and will last forever. One £6 bag will last about 5+ years, longer than that pair of Gold's Gym fingerless douchebag beacons you're sporting. Below is some science to help demonstrate my point.

Spotting

Now obviously spotting is fantastic and keeps you from choking yourself to death on your 1RM attempt etc, but you don't bloody well need a spotter for a bicep curl ...Machine. Honestly that entire title makes me want to fist someone in the face. But yeah, anyway, that does not require a spotter in the slightest. It's a sodding machine. It's designed for safety and a single user only. Sort it.

Another thing that gets on my tits is when the spotter does most of the lifting. I've seen people dumbbell press (yes, apparently the safe alternative to bench pressing also needs a spotter) and when the guy tries to press it, his mate pushes his elbows in and basically gives him the lift for free. And not only that, but they carry on going! So now rather than taking a break ready for another attempt by himself, they keep lifting this weight he failed with in first place with the spotter continuing to do more work than the guy doing the exercise himself. Seriously, FUCK. The spotter is there to stabilise and help rack the weight when you're struggling, not do the work for you.

'Bros'

Following on from those knobs are the bros. The guys who come in as a group, stand around a machine, share pictures on their phones and in total do about a 5th of the exercise the rest of us are doing between them. This is not a place to socialise, there's plenty more weights and machines all over the place, yet all five of you insist on queuing for the bicep curl machine (grrr...) making 'that's what she said' jokes and consequently hoping to score man points for a joke that's from the bloody 90s. You're loud, obnoxious and are taking up precious gym space people who actually give a damn could use.

If you look like the above, shoot yourselves to save the world from your idiotic offspring infesting my future.

Mirrors

The mirrors are there to check your form, not your abs. Stop staring at yourself, face sideways and get on with some sodding lifting you colossal faggot.

Arms

It's obvious why people train the upper body, and more specifically, the arms more than any other body part. It's the easiest and the most visible. When you're walking down a street, your manliness radiates in your skin tight shirt with your vascular bulging arms stuck on your 150lb frame. You genuinely look ridiculous. There are a fair few lads at the gym with enviously huge upper bodies but with hilariously scaled insect legs. It's up to you I guess, but if you want to get stronger, you've got to work the lower body just as much, if not more. Oh and you won't look like a tit.

Just lol.

Pretty sure that's a wrap of my list of things that piss me off. If I think of more at a later date I'll let you know. In fact I can already think of a load more. Sod it, it'll be in a later post no doubt.

Things you'll discover mid-bulk

I've been bulking for a good year and a bit now and there's a few things I've learned along the way. There's also a few things I'm still learning now, and I'm pretty sure they'll be more to come. Some good, some bad; Below are a list of things that'll no doubt come up on your quest for size and strength: 

Disbelief

'Woa man, are you on steroids?'. This is a flattering comment you'll receive for the first 4-6 months of your bulk while you still retain your original shape (you just kinda widen out). You'll get this especially from friends and family that you don't see too often, and it's a definite morale booster. 

Fortunately, this is because most people haven't heard of bulking and strength training so this is either some bizarre voodoo shit or drugs as far as they're concerned. Obviously salads, chicken breast and protein shake are what get you huge, along with 5 arm days a week and texting and tinkering with your ipod every 5 seconds. Bro science eh.

'sup.

Well at least you're training and eating the proper way, so keep at it and make the most of the compliments while they last, you'll probably lose your well defined shape soon enough. Speaking of which...

Clothing

Considering I'm on a student budget, I definitely learned this the hard way. Basically, don't go buying new clothes right away, and if you do, buy cheap shit that's preferably a size too big so it'll last. I've genuinely given up on the concept of denim and just stick to joggers always. 

The inner leg of jeans are too small, especially now there's that god awful skinny jeans fashion going round. I've gotta buy (fucking REGULAR, not skinny) jeans 4-6 inches bigger on the waist just to get them around the top of my legs, and even then they're still uncomfortable as fuck. I think I have one 44 inch pair of jeans ready on standby in case I'm going out with the lads, but other than that I'd rather stick with cotton joggers and shorts in typical campus fashion.

Stretch Marks

Yeah they happen. At first I wasn't happy at all, but eventually I just stopped caring. It's all about how much your care for your aesthetic look, and coming from a former scene kid dedicated to his image, even for me that care amounts to a big fuck all. I've got them all down my biceps and on my lower back, and they're real unsightly but whatevs.

Clumsiness

Funnily enough I've not sat behind the wheel since my epic quest for size began, but I have been a passenger in a relatively small car and it's inevitable your fat ass or legs move the gear stick by accident. Trying to squeeze through gaps you once so easily conquered or thinking that sweet hedge gap across the road looks awesome will definitely end in failure.

Because you've undergone such a dramatic change in shape and size, body parts flail all over the place and you'll find yourself bumping into things left, right and centre. It sounds dumb but it took me a fair while to figure out why I was having so many accidents at work until someone pointed it out to me, I hadn't yet got fully accustomed to my new body!

Maneuverability

Or more specifically; Shitting. You will do it a lot. Like minimum twice a day, and you kinda look forward to it cos you know you can get more food down you pretty much straight after. Also, you've gotta develop a new wiping technique as your glutes and lats will kill nearly almost constantly. An improvised re-evaluation will be in check when the time is right, no doubt.

100% accurate depiction of my poop.

That's pretty much it for the time being. If this sounds like 'the cons of strength' training it wasn't meant to, it's definitely not a moan, just a few musings of mine on my road to getting stronger.


Anyway, Jake's back off his gym hiatus so hopefully will be getting some training videos in soon (he won't mind!). 3 more weeks til heavy week again, I'd like to get my PBs recorded and documented, as well as my form judged by anyone who fancies taking a stab. 

Thanks for reading my second 'article' thing.

'Deload', clean eating and some new toys

Just thought I'd make an update just because it's been a while. Sadly, nothing amazing has happened (not that it would in like a week), exams are still fucking everywhere and coursework deadlines are coming out of my arse, but there's still been slots of time where I can squeeze a cheeky gym sesh in here and there. 

A few days ago I returned to the gym and nailed 182.5kg on a low low squat, suprisingly followed by a stream of compliments from complete strangers in the gym (wehay!) Just goes to show how well time off can help, as once again I beat a PB after a week of chilling at home with the cats and eating takeaway.

Hopefully he's checking out my blog.

Speaking of diet, this week marked my attempt at clean eating and to be honest it's all gone pretty well. It's costing a little more on shopping each week but with a clean diet I find myself with a near surplus of energy. Typical 50-60 min gym sessions are now going into 100 minute plus marathons, and all at the same intensity. This is madness, and whether or not I lose a bit of body fat or tone up, it's definitely paying off already, regardless. I may have to edit my bulking rant from last year...

And finally, I bought some new things. Firstly, I got myself a nice new shiny pair of deadlift shoes. I usually deadlift in my socks but I felt like a change. To be honest, they look like regular trainers to me but they're a lot lower. They've also got a strengthshop logo on them and at only 20 quid you can't really go too wrong. I've yet to actually use them for deads (review coming soon) but they're comfy and for now are just my new official gym shoes. 

Also on the list of cool new stuff I bought; Ammonia smelling salts!

Usually found behind the counter at places like Boots etc, £4 a bottle. Bargain.

Looking at the packaging, it's an aromatherapeutic cure to clear a cold, but you'll often see power lifters and strongmen (most notably Brian Shaw) get a full nostril full of this stuff before they march towards the platform and pull a 400kg bar. And I can totally see why. It's like a huge continuous slap in the face for like 10 seconds as it clears your head and I dunno, it's hard to explain but it gives you that tranquil mind set for that big lift. It helped with my new PB squat the other day and already I can tell it's a definite boost to anyone in need of breaking that psychological barrier.