The Benefits of Music and Weight Training
For the longest time I didn’t train to my own music. My ipod (given to me by a friend years before) was stolen from my car when some “youth” hoodlums busted the window and I never bothered to buy a new one. I didn’t like the idea of shuffling through the music to find the perfect song, messing with the volume and other settings instead of focusing on my workout.
I was wrong.
I purchased an mp3 player a couple months ago and I noticed an absolutely huge change in the quality of my training. Far more aggressive, lifting heavier and taking shorter rests. To get pumped up I walk around the gym with my mood enhancing tunes until I’m ready to attack the weights and then it’s on!
Music is a necessity in the gym. The right music takes you to a new level. The right music will turn your workout from ‘ok’ or ‘good’ to ‘monster‘.
Music makes a huge difference. Music makes ALL the difference. Music that moves you and makes you want to move puts you in a more aggressive state of mind and helps you hit the weights harder. Music fires you up more than anything.
It wouldn’t matter so much if one were able to work out in silence or to the simple clanking of weights, but that is impossible in almost any gym. All gyms play music for teenage girls, the most inappropriate workout music known to man. Even trying to ignore that baloney it still affects your workout in a negative way. Working out to your own music is the only solution unless you like working out to teeny pop.
Heavy music that pumps you up, Ballads that remind you of pretty little Mary Sue in the 7th grade and flood you with emotion, Hip Hop that has an animal beat, music that transports you into another world, music that FIRES YOU UP - it all helps to push us further in the gym.
The right music can transport you into beast mode in the gym. Music is a way to manufacture a feeling. To feel energized listen to energetic music. To feel happy listen to happy music. To feel sad listen to sad music. To get into the mindset of a gym warrior, listen to a warriors music.
Gym time is no time to be a music snob. Pick the music that pumps you up, not the music that makes you cooler and smarter than everyone else.
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The Official BOLD & DETERMINED Gym Playlist:
Hard and Heavy:
Pantera : Mouth for War / A New Level / I’m Broken
Hatebreed : I Will Be Heard / Facing What Consumes You
Slayer : Here Comes the Pain
Metal is the gym music. The above songs were just made to pump iron to.
Rock n Roll:
AC/DC : If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)
Godsmack : I Stand Alone
Coheed and Cambria : Welcome Home
These rock songs are full of fire and energy.
Hip Hop:
Necro ft. Jamey Jasta : Push it to the Limit / Push it to the Limit Version 2 (one of the top 5 best lifting songs of all time)
Tech N9ne : The Beast / Riotmaker
Achozen : Deuces
Ill Bill ft. Immortal Technique and Max Cavalera : War is My Destiny
BOLD & DETERMINED hates rap but these songs are full of fire.
Ballads / Soft:
Dwight Yokam : A Thousand Miles From Nowhere
Sun Kil Moon : Duk Koo Kim
Guns N Roses : Don’t Cry
These songs are great for light-weight days or cardio days. These aren’t pump-up songs, these are songs for steady-state work.
Fun:
Survivor : Eye of the Tiger (Rocky Theme Song)
Hulk Hogan : I Am a Real American
Nine Inch Nails : Closer (Seven Remix)
These songs make you want to get up and kill and do it with a smile.
Check out one of these songs before gym time and get FIRED UP!
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You can pick up new or used Ipod or MP3 players here on Amazon.
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Post your favorite gym tunes in the comment section.
How to Get Big Naturally: Building Muscle, Gaining Size, and Wetting Panties
In this post you are going to learn how to get BIG the natural way. We will talk about proper training, proper eating, and proper supplementation. We will learn how to go from skinny to jacked, from zero to hero, from little to BIG! We will assume the reader is skinny.
But first…
Let me tell you a little story about a guy I know. This guy is jacked. He spent 10 years in the gym daily. He looks exactly like the picture of Chuck Sipes (to the left). We were doing pullups in the gym one day when a guy and a girl came over to talk to us. The guy was running his mouth but the girl wasn’t saying anything, she was just staring at my buddy. I’ve never seen it before or since but I saw her get her little panties wet just by looking at my jacked friend. I saw the lust in her eyes, I saw it in the way she opened her mouth a little, in the way she slightly licked her lips, the way she spread her legs just a little bit more than they should be, in the way she almost imperceptibly thrusted her hips forward. She wet her panties just by looking at my friend. That’s the power of being jacked. That happened 5 years ago but I remember it like it was yesteryday.
A natural trainer has two very solid years to put on maximum muscle size. Gains will be harder to come by after the first two years of training so in those two years it should be a fight to put on the most muscular weight. A skinny natural should be eating, eating and eating as if his life depended on it.
There are two types of skinny guys:
1) Lean Skinny - these types are rail thin but they have no body-fat. Their abs and musculature show all the time, even though they are toothpicks. These types have the best muscle building bodies because it’s very, very hard for them to gain any fat.
2) Skinny-Fat - these types are skinny but have no musculature to speak of. Even though they may be rail thin they usually have something of a fat gut. These guys will have a harder time building a ripped physique.
Why people are skinny:
Being skinny is a matter of not eating enough. Nearly 100% of skinny guys are not big eaters and they eat mostly carbohydrates. They do not eat much protein or fat. It’s impossible to be skinny when eating enough necessary food.
To get big there are two critical components:
Lifting BIG and Eating BIG.
If either are neglected you can expect to either A) Not get big or B) Get fat instead.
Continue reading
The Old School 70′s Bodybuilding Routine
The 1970′s produced the most impressive male physiques the world has ever seen. The bodybuilders of the 70′s made Zeus and Hercules look like pencil necks. In this article we will take a look at the 70′s bodybuilding workout routine - and how the 70′s bodybuilders achieved their near perfect physiques.
Current bodybuilders look like pregnant cows with zero bodyfat, in other words, they look absolutely ridiculous. The 70′s bodybuilders were the ideal physique of man - they had low bodyfat, but not so low they looked sick, they had small waists with abdominals clearly defined, big chests, wide lats, big shoulders, and big arms.
They had perfect V-tapers. A V-taper is when the male upper body has a “V” shape. Starting with wide shoulders, wide lats, and moving down in size to a tight waist - like a “V”.
In this article we will review the de-facto bodybuilding routine of bodybuilders like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, Franco Columbu, Lou Ferrigno, Boyer Coe, Bill Grant, Mike Mentzer, Serge Nubret and other bodybuilders from the golden era of bodybuilding.
The workout routine they used was a high-volume approach. In lay-mans terms ‘high volume’ means they did a whole lot of work to achieve their physiques. Both in the gym and in the “kitchen”.
Todays top bodybuilders follow a routine of working out one bodypart per week for one hour per workout session. For example they may work Chest on Monday, Back on Tuesday, rest on Wednesday, Legs on Thursday, Shoulders and Arms on Friday, and rest on Saturday and Sunday.
The 70′s era bodybuilders were in the gym 6 days per week doing lots of heavy work, resting very little, and spending a long time in the gym to achieve the look of perfection.
Their routine was not set in stone. A trainer must use his instinct to find what works for him. We will look at the bodypart splits (the days they worked each muscle groups) and the exercises they used. It is for the reader to determined his choice of exercises and rep scheme (the amount of reps you will do per set).
Bodybuilding in the 1970′s was about achieving perfection of the male body. 70′s bodybuilding was about building the most aesthetic, muscular and strong body attainable by man. Below we will look at how they accomplished this.
Continue reading
How to Perform the Arnold Press
The Arnold Press is a shoulder exercise performed with dumbbells to build bigass cannon-ball shoulders. The shoulders (or deltoids) are a three sided muscle and will need to be worked evenly to develop big and round shoulders. The Arnold Press was developed by Arnold Schwarzenegger to simultaneaously work all three heads of the shoulder (in laymans terms the front delt, the side delt, and the rear delt) at the same time, whereas a standard dumbbell overhead press will put more emphasis on the front delts, little (if any) emphasis on the side delts, and no emphasis on the rear delts. The Arnold Press is an all-in-one exercise. However, the benefits are only seen when the Arnold Press is performed correctly, which rarely happens.
The Arnold Press is probably the most misunderstood exercise in existence. It is one of the best shoulder exercises but is continuously performed incorrectly. Today we will learn how to correctly perform the Arnold Press so we can build up some bigass cannonball shoulders.
The Arnold Press is the most common name of the exercise, but there is another name for this exercise: The Scott Press. It is also called the Scott Press because Larry Scott, the first Mr. Olympia, developed the exact same exercise to turn his small, little shoulders into show-stopping behemoths. The Arnold Press/Scott Press will put some meat on even the smallest of shoulders, if performed correctly.
The most common way to perform the Arnold Press is to start with two dumbbells in your hands and hold them in front of your chest with palms facing in, pressing the dumbbells over head while simultaneaously rotating the hands so that at the top of the movement your palms face away from your body and using a full range of motion. This method completely ignores the intricacies of the movement and doesn’t give the same results as performing it correctly does.
The correct way to perform the movement as described by both Larry Scott in the video below and by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his book The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
is a rather awkward movement looking much like a Chicken flapping it’s wings while pouring tea from a tea-pot. Below is the correct way to perform the Arnold Press/Scott Press as described the Larry Scott himself:
Photos: Larry Scott, Mr. Olympia 1965
Now get in the gym and build those suckers up!
The Secret to Gaining Muscle Part II - The Truth About Steroids
(This article is for fun and information purposes only. This article is not suggesting anyone should ever use illegal substances, if illegal in your country, unless medically necessary and with a Doctor’s supervision and guidance.)
In our last article The Secret to Gaining Muscle we exposed the truth about the muscle industry. To summarize:
There is no muscle industry without drugs (steroids).
There is no such thing as getting into phenomenal shape with over-the-counter supplements like creatine and whey protein or with diet and training alone. The naturally lean and muscular body is a skinny one. The human body CANNOT produce excessive muscular size while maintaining low body-fat. A natural trainer has two options: be lean and muscular but look skinny in clothing or be big and look somewhat muscular in clothing but also be relatively fat.
Muscle stars do not tell you the truth because:
- They make money off our gullibility when they sell us worthless supplements.
- They don’t want anyone to look like them, they want to be special and they don’t want competition.
- If they told the truth about their drug use they would be thought of as “cheaters” and their livelihood would be instantly gone.
Every person who has attained great shape has used a cocktail of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, insulin, diuretics, and narcotics. Every muscular person knows this and most of them will not tell you the truth. Steroids are not just used by a small number of meat-head bodybuilders. Steroids are used by a huge amount of people where strength, size, endurance, or appearance are of importance. Steroids are used for this reason:
On Steroids you go from Zero to Hero in a matter of weeks.
The list of people who ALWAYS use steroids are as follows: Bodybuilders, athletes (even skinny athletes who do not look like the average roid-head), fitness models, and weightlifters. There is no exception to this list. These people take drugs because they MUST take drugs to earn money or to win.
The list of people who commonly use steroids are: Police officers, firefighters, prison guards, movie and music stars, gym-rats, “natural” bodybuilders, men in the Armed Forces especially those serving in Special Units, divorced and single women over the age of 30 or 40 who want to look good, men over the age of 30-40 who want to look good, prisoners, people in the club scene, bouncers etc.. This list is endless.
With so many people using they must know something that natural trainers don’t know. In this article we will look at the effects and side effects of these drugs.
ANABOLIC STEROIDS
Anabolic Androgen Steroids, commonly referred to as “AAS”. “Anabolic” is short for “Anabolism” which means cell growth (muscle growth) and “Androgen” is short for “Androgenic” which means virilising or affecting the development and maintenance of masculine characteristics. Anabolic steroids are the most commonly used drugs to develop a muscular physique.
AAS includes drugs which promote muscle and size gain and drugs that promote fat loss while maintaining muscle size. The most common anabolic steroids are:
- Synthetic Testosterone - First synthesized in the 1930′s and used to great advantage on Russian Weighlifters. Testosterone is an injectable steroid. Testosterone comes in several different forms including: Testosterone Enanthate, Testosterone Cypionate, & Testosterone Propionate. Testosterone is the base for ALL steroid cycles (a length of time that a user uses steroids).
- Dianabol - First developed in the 1950′s and spawning the entire bodybuilding industry. Dianabol (DBOL) is the most common and popular steroid of all time. Dianabol is an oral steroid meaning it is swallowed in pill form. Side effects include looking like Larry Scott.
- Deca Durabolin - Deca is an injectable steroid used to put on a lot of muscular size in a short time. Deca is also noted for it’s ability to eliminate joint pain by “lubing” the joints. Deca is a hugely popular steroid. Side effects include getting jacked.
- Equipoise - Equipoise (EQ) is an injectable steroid originally used on horses. EQ is commonly used as a fat cutting drug and a stamina increasing drug (good for athletes).
- Sustanon - Sustanon is a combination of four different types of testosterone and is used to gain muscular size.
- Anavar - Anavar is an oral steroid typically used to cut fat while maintaining muscular size.
- Winstrol - Winstrol is a steroid used to cut body fat.
- Trenbolone - Trenbolone is an injectable steroid used to cut bodyfat while gaining muscular size. Side effects include making panties wet.
The most common reported side effects of responsible Anabolic steroid use are: Getting jacked, getting strong, gaining muscle size, increased stamina, ravenous appetite, ravenous sexual appetite, gaining confidence, and turning into He-Man.
Other, less fun, side effects include: Possible testicular atrophy, acne, possible premature hair loss if genetically pre-disposed, hair growth, possible gynocomastia, stunted growth (for the youngsters), possible kidney and liver problems and more.
Yes, Steroids have side effects. Every drug has side effects - as every TV commercial for any drug so comically points out. The truth is that Steroids cannot kill you. Steroids rarely cause impotence - in many countries steroids are used as sexual aides. Years of steroid ABUSE can cause hormonal problems and the inability to produce testosterone without the use of drugs.
Steroids are not the killer the lying media reports them to be.
The portayal of Steroids in the popular media is one lie after another. Testosterone is the base of steroids, Testosterone is THE male hormone and everything that has anything to with masculinity is wrong. In the emasculated media’s eyes it’s better to act like a weakling than to be a strong male. Estrogen is THE female hormone and it causes reduced muscle mass, increased fat gain, fluid retention, increased risk of breast cancer, and more undesirable affects. I’ll bet you have seen commercials for estrogen pills and their great benefits and I’ll guarantee you have never seen testosterone portrayed in anything other than a negative light. The truth is that steroids are downright helpful when used properly and not abused. Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) is a Godsend for many men past the age of 30 because it helps the users feel young, healthy, and VITAL. Every man past his natural peak should probably supplement with Testosterone, even if not for cosmetic reasons.
OTHER DRUGS USED TO GAIN MUSCLE AND REDUCE BODY FAT:
Human Growth Hormone - Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is responsible for the gigantic size bodybuilders and athletes have been able to achieve. Anabolic steroids help to put on massive size and strength but only up to a point. Human Growth Hormone is the secret to walking around and looking like a Greek Statue with a huge amount of muscle and a low bodyfat percentage. HGH is how female fitness competitors get into shape. HGH is the entire reason Men and Women over the age of 30 can look like Gods and Goddesses.
Insulin - Insulin is used by bodybuilders and athletes to take their size to the ultimate max. Insulin is responsible for the disgusting pregnant bellies of bodybuilders. Side effects include: achieving super-human size and looking disgusting. Insulin is a very dangerous drugs and can kill you if used improperly.
Diuretics - Diuretics are used by bodybuilders and models to remove excess water from underneath the skin to achieve an abnormally lean and dry look. Frequent use and abuse of diuretics is very unhealthy and can do serious damage.
Narcotics - Narcotics and steroids go hand-in-hand. The type of people who are attracted to using steroids are the type of people who are attracted to using other drugs. After developing a Statue-esque physique a lot of guys want to go out and party and pick up chicks. They see it as a bright side that drugs like Cocaine and Meth-amphetamine also have a fat burning effect. Many, many, many people who start steroids are already drug users in the party scene. After using narcotics on a regular basis, injecting steroids is no big deal. And vice versa - after injecting steroids for a long time sniffing a little cocaine or taking ghb or ecstacy or injecting nubaine is no big deal. Painkillers are also very common for athletes to use and this is what leads to the real health problems - the combination of narcotics (or alcohol) and hormones is a real killer. If you decide to use steroids you should never, ever drink alcohol or use narcotics. Steroids by themselves will not, cannot, harm or kill you - it is only the combination of steroids and narcotics or alcohol that proves lethal. This is why so many wrestlers, athletes, & bodybuilders die prematurely.
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Again, I am not advocating anyone use drugs, I don’t even use tylenol (a far more dangerous drug than steroids), but I am telling you that Steroids aren’t the demon they are portrayed as. I want you all to know the truth, even though it can be depressing. I don’t want anyone chasing the dragon when their body is already at it’s natural peak but you can have and maintain a good, natural physique and no one should use steroids unless they have built muscle naturally first or they are past their testosterone producing prime (approx. 30 years old). Stay tuned for more.
Part 3 coming soon.
The Secret to Gaining Muscle
You will read countless muscle magazines, books, internet articles, and online message boards searching for the secret to gaining impressive muscle size. They will say things like:
- “protein powder 6 times a day”,
- “load up on creatine for 6 days”,
- “take this amazing N.O. pre-workout supplement”,
- “be sure and eat within 45 minutes of your workout”,
- “never workout longer than 45 minutes”,
- “eat 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight”.
The supplement advertisements will come with pictures of muscled-up monsters so you know what they say is the truth. Other articles purporting to give you the secret to gaining muscles will say “The secret is that their is no secret - it takes hard work, determination, and sacrifice“. Or “The secret is taking this combination of supplements every three hours“. What they will never tell you is the truth. The truth is that their is a secret to gaining muscle mass, an open secret, and every single person in the fitness industry, bodybuilding industry, modeling industry, film industry, advertising industry, sports industry knows it and they will never, ever tell you what it is.
Well, friends, I know the secret and I will share with you what it is. In the back of your mind you already know what the secret is, you just don’t want to believe it. The secret to gaining impressive, dense, eye-popping muscles is this:
MUSCLE ENHANCING DRUGS:
ANABOLIC STEROIDS
HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE
DIURETICS
INSULIN
&
NARCOTICS
Yes, friends, every single bodybuilder, fitness model, muscled up movie star, athlete, weightlifter are all on a cocktail of these drugs. Every. Single. One. Having a muscled-up physique that turns heads and drops tongues has very little to do with genetics, diet and exercise and it has absolutely nothing to do with over-the-counter supplements like whey protein, creatine, and other garbage sold to you by people who know the real secret. Building rock solid muscles has everything to do with muscle enhancing drugs. These people will never tell you the secret to their success for 3 reasons:
1) They will stop making money. They make an easy buck selling you worthless pipe dreams in the form of supplements like whey protein. Many of these athletes are sponsored by supplement companies (which allows them to buy their drug cocktails) and they will lose their sponsorship if they ever uttered the truth and they cannot openly make money by selling you steroids. They would also be blackballed from their industry for revealing the secrets of their success.
2) If others know the secret then they have a lot more competition. When they mislead the gullible people they can be worshiped for “having great genetics and a strong work ethic” and not have to worry about competition. If steroids were sold in supplement shops just like whey protein OVERNIGHT 8 out of 10 guys you see would look like a professional athlete, fitness model, or bodybuilder. The United States would turn into Invasion of the Meat-Heads!
3) In the public eye they will forever be known as cheaters. They will be known as people who “took the shortcut to the top, they didn’t work for what they got“. The real story is that they aren’t cheaters, they cannot possibly be cheaters because all of them use drugs. They cannot be cheaters because 99.9% of their peers do the exact same thing. It isn’t cheating when it is the norm. In fact, any type of muscle industries cannot exist without the help of drugs for one simple reason: natural physiques look like absolute shit in comparison to drug physiques.
There you have it, friends. Now you know how the pros get their insane physiques. If they didn’t take drugs they would look like you or I, the average Joe’s, who train hard and eat hard and don’t take drugs. It is possible to attain a good physique naturally, but not a great physique, and you had better train like a maniac in your first two years because it becomes much harder after that to make any gains. The plight of the natural is that he can have size and be a little fat or he can be lean and a little skinny. You cannot be ripped and have size as a natural. That is the law of nature. The human body can only handle so much muscle without drug assistance.
We all, naively, want to believe that people work hard and reap the benefits of their hard work and sacrifice. We want to believe that drugs are the shortcut and only cheaters take them. We want to believe that anything is possible with just a little dedication. The unfortunate reality is that some things actually are impossible. The human body just isn’t capable of handling extra muscle mass above what was intended for us without help from drugs. Every bodybuilder you have seen, every athlete you have seen (since the 80′s at least), every fitness star you have seen, every muscled action star you have seen has used muscle enhancing drugs to get that way. Muscle enhancing drugs have been around for a very long time, since at least the 1930′s. They are not new on the scene. They have been utilized for their muscle building effects for decades. Bodybuilding, in particular and in all it’s shapes, sizes and eras, does not exist without drugs. From the first (John Grimek) to the last (whatever Mass Monster is popular when you read this), all use(d) muscle enhancing drugs. In fact they go beyond use into abuse. They take insane amounts because insane amounts are required to achieve that kind of size.
Someone will inevitably say “well what about Eugene Sandow? He was around before steroids were invented! If he can do it I can do it“. Let me point out three things:
1) Eugene Sandow was the absolute best of the best in regards to “natural” muscle building. He had everything perfect for his illusion: the right height, the right bone structure, the right metabolism, and the right strength.
2) Eugene Sandow had no size to speak of. He was incredibly lean. Which proves that naturals can have size or leanness, but not both.
3) Eugene Sandow took a fat burning drug called Cocaine, which was perfectly legal at the time.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I must shed light to the poor souls who spend money on muscle mags and protein powders and pre-workout supplements. You can skip all that bullshit and use food and intense training and build a good physique. You can take it a step further and build a panty-dropping physique if you take drugs. Just remember, in some countries Muscle Enhancing Drugs are illegal without a prescription and could land you in trouble. I’m certainly not advising you take them, I am simply bringing the truth to you.
Full disclosure: I am a lifetime natural. I live amongst a population where no one uses steroids. The physiques at my local gyms are laughably poor. Because of this my physique is #1, cream of the crop, apex. Quite unlike the United States where every gym has a very high number of steroid users and, therefore, eye-popping physiques that put my natural physique to shame.
Stay tuned for more because, baby, we aren’t done with this subject.
Eugene Sandow - a killer before killing was cool.
The Benefits of Doing Farmers Walks
We all know some cornfed country boys who grew up on farms, baled hay, carried heavy stuff, ate eggs, drank milk and turned out to be strong S.O.B.’s. Likewise we all know some old-timers who grew up on farms and maybe worked farms all their life. Those old-timers have old man strength. Old man farm strength is un-paralleled. I once tried to arm wrestle an old-timer who grew up on a farm. That mans arms were like steel - they would not budge an inch. Since all he seemed to do at present was drink beer and smoke cigarettes I can only assume he had done his heavy lifting on the farm and that strength just stayed with him.
Obviously the best way to gain farm strength is to grow up on a farm, doing heavy work, drinking your raw milk, and eating your eggs and bacon.
The next best way to gain farm strength is to do Farmers Walks.
Farmers Walks are the most simple exercise in existence - pick up some heavy weights and walk as far as you can. Repeat. Farmers Walks are also one of the best strength builders you can do. If you can’t believe that you should try and arm wrestle ol’ Billy Ray who works on his papa’s dairy farm and see who comes out on top. I got my money on Billy.
Another beautiful aspect of Farmers Walks is that their are almost limitless variations. It only takes a little imagination and you have yourself an entire workout just carrying heavy loads. Here are a few variations:
1) Grab two HEAVY dumbbells and walk as far as you can. This is the most common version. This will tear up your traps and your forearms and just generally make a man out of you.
2) Deadlift a HEAVY loaded bar and walk with it as far as you can.
3) Grab two dumbbells, shoulder press them overhead and walk with them overhead for as far as you can walk. Also known as Waiters Walks.
4) Clean a heavy loaded bar, press it overhead to lock-out and walk with is as far as you can.
5) Pick up any heavy object and carry it as far as you can.
6) Carry a heavy dumbbell or barbell overhead one arm at a time.
Easy peasy, Japanesy. Remember to use heavy weight if you want any benefit. You wouldn’t see ol’ Billy Ray walking around with no 15 lb dumbbells.
Get Your Game Face On, This is War
There is one hard and steady rule to see if someone is working at full capacity: The goofiness of the face they make. If the face isn’t goofy, they aren’t trying too hard. Simple as that. For some reason some guys are just shy or scared of looking silly. Other guys don’t care how stupid they look, they’re going to go for it. I’ve had workout partners who made all kinds of silly faces and I’ve had workout partners who would end the set the very second their face might start to look silly. And their was always a huge difference in the physiques between the two types of people.
Be proud of your goofy face for it means you are a warrior. Hold your head high and let the world see.
The Real Benefits of Weight Training
The real benefits of weight training have nothing to do with reducing bodyfat or a having nice build. The real benefits have everything to do with relieving stress, getting out aggression, building confidence, giving you a positive mental attitude, giving you pride, developing discipline, and giving you a rush like narcotics would do.
In an emasculated world there are precious few outlets for Men to get out aggression. Weight lifting is one of the best ways to relieve aggression. Therapy is an excuse to never actually do anything for yourself and a convenient way to blame others. Iron therapy makes you as mentally strong as it does physically strong. If you’re full of pent up aggression you go to the gym, pick up 135 lbs, and put it overhead as many times as you can. You turn on some music that lights a fire under your ass. You walk out the door and see how far you can run before you can’t breathe anymore. You don’t go talk to an emasculated psychiatrist who thinks ‘open communication’ is the key to getting out aggression. Put 200 lbs on his back and make him squat ’til he can’t move and see if he still wants to talk about his feelings. In our world we can’t go hunting woolly mammoths, but we can do the next best thing. Lift some weights and eat some steaks.
It’s impossible to feel stress after an hour of solid training. No matter how stressed you were when you got to the gym ,as long as you give it your all that stress will go away and be replaced by a testosterone fueled feeling of euphoria. The best rush in the world and all the narcotics in the world can’t give you that natural high.
There’s a confidence gained in the gym that people who never train cannot understand. When a guy first starts out and can barely bench 45 lbs and ups that to 225 lbs with steady, solid training the feeling of accomplishment is immense. When a guy starts out deadlifting 95 lbs and ups that to 405 lbs that’s a huge boost to the ego. That’s something you can be proud of. Even if no one else in the worlds understands where you came from it doesn’t matter, you have accomplished what you once thought impossible and no one can take that away from you.
Discipline comes along for the ride. If you never had any before, you will after you start training. Weight training requires you eat right. You won’t even want to eat junk food anymore, your body will crave the good foods and you’ll want to eat those good foods. Heavy weight training requires you get good sleep, and you will. Weight training requires you get up off the couch and go to the gym and accomplish something. If you can manage that you will see what all the hype was about.
How Prisoners Get So Muscular
Authors Note: Having never been to prison, the following article is pure speculation. Enjoy.
We’ve all seen pictures or videos of prisoners and marveled at their excellent physical development. While no one is jealous of their predicament, many of them have bodies that make most regular men envious. One question often posed is “How do prisoners get so big?” Afterall, they eat a terrible, nutrition deprived diet, they probably don’t take any supplements, some of them don’t have weights to lift, they exercise seemingly non-stop. In fact, everything they do in regards to weight training goes against the conventional advice of eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, don’t lift more than 3 or 4 days per week, drink water non-stop, take supplements, rest when you’re outside of the gym, bodyweight exercises don’t add muscle, exercise one muscle per session only once per week, and don’t exercise for more than 45 minutes a day.
This is another example of why *conventional* advice is always wrong.
Prisoners follow none of the conventional magazine advice an have the bodies to show for it. This is how they do it:
1) They have to get big and strong. When they go in they will no doubt be one of the weakest, smallest guys around. In an ocean of sharks they are the seals. They HAVE to get bigger, it’s not an option. They set their mind to it and they do it with a single minded determination. Weaklings get picked on, the strong ones don’t. What the mind can believe, the body can achieve.
2) They have high testosterone. Guys who go to prison normally have higher testosterone than average, then they are placed in an environment drowning in testosterone and their own testosterone count shoots through the roof. You’ve got to have high T just to survive, to be on the lookout everyday, willing to fight or kill at the drop of a dime. Testosterone is the building block of muscle and these guys are loaded with it.
3) They workout routinely. Prisoners always take about routine and how important it is to them. Everything is on a schedule for them and they no doubt wait and look forward to the time they can lift. Routine is how anyone gets muscular, inside prison or out. Even the most normal of men who follow a strict lifting program over a period of years will get very, very muscular and strong. How many free men are able to dedicate themselves to the gym for a period of 10 years or more?
San Quentin. Even in 1947 prisoners were getting jacked.
4) They lift heavy. With a yard full of monsters watching you, you not only have to appear strong you have to BE strong, so these guys lift heavy, heavy, heavy. Progressive heavier lifting over a routine period of years will get anyone strong, muscular, and jacked.
5) They use conditioning exercises to get strong and ripped. Stuck in their cells they’ve got nothing but time for burpees and other bodyweight exercises that get the heart pumping and the fat melting. Endless pushups, hand-stand pushups, sit-ups, dips, and pull-ups will create big, broad shoulders, huge chest, thick arms, 6 pack abs, wide back, and a v-taper that the most dedicated of gym rats would be jealous of.
‘Armed and Dangerous’
6) They get enough sleep. They go to sleep and wake up at the same time every single day. Regular sleep is when the muscles recover and rebuild.
7) They eat at the same time every day. Their bodies know when to expect it’s flow of nutrients. Regular eating is extremely important for building and maintaining a world class physique. Even though these guys eat terribly nutrient void food, the body knows what to expect and can utilize what it is given. In addition to the free meals they receive everyday, which can total over 3,000 calories per day, they can buy foods like tuna and protein powder from the commissary giving them extra protein and nutrients.
8) They have low stress. They don’t have the testosterone sapping stress of paying bills, working jobs, nagging wife, unemployment, child support, and other minutia. The kind of stress they do have, surviving, increases their testosterone.
9) Steroids - Prisons are notorious drug hotspots and that certainly includes steroids. Many criminals are in jail on drug charges, meaning they are no strangers to drugs. People who already use drugs are a whole lot more likely to use steroids than any regular Joe.
Prisoners are able to dedicate themselves, not just for a few months but for years, to getting jacked. They are provided all the food and sleep that they need. They lift to get strong as well as big. They exercise for a couple of hours everyday. They have no stress that we in the outside world have.
If any free man was able to dedicate himself the way prisoners are dedicated he would be able to turn himself into a muscular monster, just like these guys.
Nick
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