As Heavy As Possible

“Muscle bound” is a myth

   

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”

- Mark Rippetoe

Reflecting

You can never be too strong to move well.  Monday morning workouts are generally not for time and as heavy as possible to build strength.  Strength comes first because it is the foundation upon which we build other elements of fitness.  It is easy to see how fat we get on the standard American diet of highly palatable ultra processed food.  It is less evident how weak we get in sedentary jobs that involve a lot of sitting on our butts exchanging emails.  It has gotten to the point where we can start to lose the mind-body connection with an atrophied posterior chain and no longer voluntarily fire the glutes and hamstrings. 

There is an admitted goofiness to bodybuilding competitions but one real virtue of that sport is that bodybuilders can connect their minds to each visible muscle in their body and voluntarily contract each one.  Some of the best athletes in jiu jitsu, such as Nsima Inyang, have pursued bodybuilding and proved that you can get big and still move.  Bodybuilding rewards balance and symmetry to physiques so that one doesn’t neglect the muscles most neglected in modern sedentary jobs. 

Training

This morning’s whiteboard –

6 Rounds not for time

• 8 Romanian deadlifts as heavy as possible

• 10 dumbbell bench as heavy as possible

• 12 weighted sit-ups as heavy as possible

Fueling

Stan Efferding is the nutrition expert most aligned with my fueling priorities.  Listen to Stan on Do This To Build Muscle, Burn Fat & Get Healthy and read his book The Vertical Diet: A Simple, Sensible, and Sustainable Lifestyle Plan to Improve Body Composition f or Optimal Health and Performance.

Supplementing

I am taking a week off of stimulants.  I want tor reset my body so that caffeine, etc. in pre-workout drinks has a bigger impact.  If you’re not sure if you’re addicted to caffeine (or anything else) then take a week off to find out. 

Measuring

Getting close.  Hoping to hit my $1k goal today:

Push-up competition raising money for kids with cancer

Recovering

I took it easy yesterday and felt better in the gym today.  I’ve been told to take rest days dozens of times by coaches and athletes far more experienced and successful in fitness than I am but can’t quite do it unless it is unavoidable.  But I had an event and brunch yesterday that wiped out trail running and CrossFit.  Worth it to see friends and to get to this morning recovered (but will be happy to attack the trails again next weekend!).  So I can’t take this good advice but maybe you can: take rest days.  Heal up.  Then use your rested and recovered body to attack your next workouts with ferocity. 

Closing

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Disclosure: Yet Another Value Blog is my business partner, The Amateur Investor is my son, and QTR is my friend.